rMINISTRY OF EVII 



OF THE FUTURE LIFE 



GI-MRLES WATSON MILLEN 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDD201t,7373 




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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

with REPLIES TO CRITICS 

ALSO 

A STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 



BY 

CHARLES WATSON MILLEN 
n 



There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out. 

Shakespeare 

And I have felt 
A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused. 

Wordsworth 




BOSTON 
SHERMAN, FRENCH ^ COMPANY 
1913 






Copyright, 1913 
Sherman, French 6* Company 



X 



©aA354823 



TO 

THE TEARS THAT HAVE REFLECTED RAINBOWS, 
THE LOSSES FOUND TO BE TREASURES, 
THE MISFORTUNES REVEALED AS BLESSINGS, 
THE CROSSES THAT HAVE HID THEIR CROWNS, 
THE ENEMIES THAT BLINDLY COMPELLED TO A 

BETTER PATH 

TO 

ALL THE UNLOVING AND UNLOVED 
THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED 



CONTENTS 2 

* 

PAGE 

PREFACE 1 

THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

Prelude 11 

Evil in the World and its Ministry 

There 13 

Interlude 26 

Evil in Heaven and its Subjection 

Everywhere SO 

A Reflection 41 

Replies to Critics 45 

A STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE . . 123 



PREFACE 

Feeling that the more or less accepted theo- 
ries of evil are as incompatible with truth as 
they are inconsistent with each other, I have 
endeavored to present a view, which, to say the 
least, does not dishonor God's character nor 
contradict the Bible. I believe that the true 
theory of evil does not make God in any degree 
responsible for its existence, that it does not 
give Satan a free hand in the moral disturbance 
of God's universe, and that it does not imply 
the permanence of evil either in active or pas- 
sive form. 

In the creation of high orders of beings en- 
dowed with free will, the possibility of evil be- 
comes necessary. The power of free choice im- 
plies both good and evil as possible. And this 
is as true of God as it is of His moral creatures, 
for He is free. He cannot confer a power 
which He does not possess.* ^ 

The will, or power of free choice, in each free 

agent is one faculty. Good and evil, there- 

* The figures found in connection with "Preface" and 
poem refer to criticisms and answers correspondingly 
numbered under "Replies to Critics." 



2 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

fore, proceed from the same source. God ex- 
presses that power for righteousness and thus 
is the personification of goodness. The being 
whom He made nearest to Him, the one most 
like Him, probably the first of His moral crea- 
tures and head of angelic hosts, endowed with 
marvelous and irrevocable powders, expresses, 
probably not from the beginning and possibly 
not forever, his will in unrighteousness, and 
therefore is the embodiment and father of evil. 
According to some of our mental philoso- 
phers, the will in man acts for good or evil in 
conformity with the motives which affect it. 
But does it not act, rather, according as it is 
acted upon by the primary representatives of 
good and evil, and often without the weighing 
of motives in any conscious degree? Explain- 
ing the cause of her fall. Eve said: "Satan 
beguiled me and I did eat." When Ananias 
deceived as to the price for which he sold a 
piece of land, Jesus said: "Why hath Satan 
filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?" So, 
also, it was Satan who tempted Jesus in the 
wilderness. Hence the language of David's 
confession of his great offense is suitable to 
every acknowledgment of sin: "Against Thee, 
Thee only, have I sinned and done evil in Thy 
sight." We are good or evil as our will yields 
to the will of God or of Satan. Trench, in his 
"Study of Words," says: "To find guilt in a 



PREFACE S 

man is to find that he has been beguiled by the 
devil, — Hnstigante diaholo,' as it is inserted in 
all indictments for murder, the forms of which 
come down to' us from a time when men were not 
ashamed of tracing evil to his inspiration." 

While God's nature requires Him to do all in 
His power, consistent with the perfect freedom 
of the subject, to prevent evil choice, yet, in the 
contingency of its occurrence, it is necessary 
for God to permit evil to such extent as may 
fully demonstrate the free agency of the sub- 
ject, but not to the extent of destroying His 
moral government. Perfect free agency is com- 
patible with supreme moral sovereignty.^ 

God's nature also requires Him mercifully to 
interpose in the sinner's behalf and to make evil 
contribute to His own glory and the sinner's 
profit in the highest possible degree. This He 
does by giving to evil, in the abstract and in its 
concrete forms, an adequate ministry through 
the gift of His Son. He is justified in making 
possible, by the creation of free beings, the evil 
which He can turn to infinite advantage both to 
Himself and to' them, especially if it be His pur- 
pose to finally overcome it. 

In presenting the benefits which come through 
evil, therefore, we are not commending evil, but 
glorifying God, who overrules and uses it for 
good. To the creature belongs all the responsi- 
bility for the introduction of evil into the uni- 



4. THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

verse, while to the Creator belongs all the credit 
for its having become a blessing therein. 

We hold that God cannot create or choose 
evil ; but when once introduced, He may use evil 
against evil and in a sense make evils, so called, 
as He did when by His curse He transformed 
the agreeable and intelligent serpent who con- 
versed with Eve into' the vile reptile that now 
lurks in hidden places and lures or stealthily 
strikes his unsuspecting prey. It was the ser- 
pent of His creation, not the reptile of His curse, 
that God pronounced good. 

Mosquitoes that annoy, caterpillars that 
nest in the trees and destroy their foliage, army 
worms that devour the growing crops, — all the 
tormenting and destructive vermin known as 
pests, — are evils, but in service, and God made 
them only as He made "thorns and thistles" — 
the representative evil products of the earth 
while under His curse. They form no part of 
His original creation. They minister to our 
discipline in the contention and war which we 
are compelled to wage against them. And so 
we should, perhaps, thank God for them and 
their very vexing proclivities. 

Though the earth would not have been cursed 
but for man's fall, yet the curse has relation 
mainly to the future. It may show to man, 
earth's chief inhabitant, the blighting charac- 
ter of sin and remind him of that greatest pos- 



PREFACE 5 

sible cataclysm which involved him so deeply, 
but as the earth could not participate in the 
moral tragedy of Eden beyond being the passive 
scene of it, it could not be cursed on its own 
account. The curse of the earth was a part 
of the curse pronounced upon man and was so 
full of hope that in his changed moral relations 
and conditions it became the occasion of his 
greatest blessing. Man should sweat, but he 
should eat; he should labor, but his labor 
should find ample reward; he should meet 
evil, but he should overcome it — never again 
should evil be his master, but evermore his 
servant ; he should suffer, but not without profit, 
and through it his seed should be multiplied, 
from which should come his Divine Redeemer — 
the Savior of all men, especially of them that 
believe. God did not curse the earth in anger 
for man's sin, but in love for man's sake; it 
was not for man's punishment, but for his de- 
velopment. 

Is evil needful in the universe? God has 
created moral beings, angelic and human, and 
both have fallen. Is evil needful in heaven as 
in earth, for angels as for men? Does God 
need it for the accomplishment of His highest 
purposes? Surely God uses it and through it 
opens in Himself and in every one of His in- 
telligent creatures the fountains of sympathy 
and healing that shall flow perpetually.^ 



6 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

"Replies to Critics," forming a considerable 
part of this volume, will be regarded by many 
as more valuable than the poem, an abstract of 
which has received the consideration of the best 
Biblical scholarship available. While some 
have given it unqualified commendation, it has 
presented to others difficulties and objections 
which they have kindly and courteously stated, 
meriting my highest appreciation and placing 
me under a welcome debt of obligation. My 
replies have been made in no spirit of contro- 
versy, but of loyalty to seeming truth. The 
Scripture passages, to which have been given a 
new interpretation and application, are worthy 
of most careful study. False views, whatever 
their antiquity or endorsement, contribute no 
advantage, and every error corrected here can do 
no less than to save us from disappointment 
hereafter. 



"A Study of the Future Life" is unique in 
its character and original in its conclusions. 
It is not a speculation. It is not a revamp of 
any ism or theory. It is a new conception 
based upon reason, resemblance and Revelation. 
It casts a modifying light upon many teachings 
of the Church and gives a new and beautiful 
meaning to many texts of Scripture. It will 
interest even where it may not convince. Be- 



PREFACE 7 

lieving that it will yet be the generally accepted 
doctrine of the future life, I am glad to be its 
author. 

The birth of this book has been in the valley 
of Baca, secluded, shadowy, tearful ; yet sound- 
ing no note of gloom, it reveals God as always 
on the throne and always the God of love. Its 
picture of the fair morning of creation invaded 
by elements that threaten confusion and uni- 
versal wreck, dissolves into another of all- 
embracing peace and perfect harmony, the sun 
shining in splendor and not a cloud in all the 
sky. I send it forth with the earnest hope that 
it will stimulate thought, improve faith, encour- 
age contentment, help to a still clearer state- 
ment of the problem of evil, and inspire the 
most grateful view of the gracious character 
and righteous government of God. 

C. W. M. 



THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 



PRELUDE 

When angels sing, they voice their joy, — 

No minor strains their harps employ; 

Creation's glories wake their song 

That worlds reecho and prolong. 

Distilling into tuneful ears 

The mystic music of the spheres ; 

The Savior's birth in glad refrain 

They chant o'er Bethlehem's hallowed plain; 

For each poor sinner's contrite tears 

Their loud hosannas Heaven hears. 

And poets angels are, who sing 
Of whom and what they love; they bring 
Bright flowers of speech and rarest gems 
Of thought to form rich diadems 
Wherewith to deck with deftest art 
And crown fond objects of their heart. 

They sing their joys. No flames of hate, 
No sorrows inarticulate. 
No shrouded grief, or pain, or crime, 
Should poet's fancy weave in rhyme. 

They sing of art ; of home and friends ; 

And Nature's ample book extends 
11 



12 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

The list of themes all poets love 
In earth below and stars above. 

They sing of beauty, virtue, grace, 
And paint the joys of that dear place 
Where holy ranks of seraphs sing 
And pay pure worship to their King; 
Where saints in radiant splendor shine. 
Reflecting glory all divine; 
Where poets, too, whose loves are pure, 
Their rich reward will find secure. 

Sing on, ye bards; the world needs song; 
Enough of grief; enough of wrong. 
Sweet comfort give; let all your lays 
Bring hope of brighter, better days. 
And every strain, like balsam, heal 
The wounds our hearts would fain conceal. 

God's messengers mankind to bless. 

Increase the sum of happiness; 

The truth make clear in spite of creed; 

True love incarnate in the deed; 

Give hope that shines when stars fade out; 

Give faith that conquers death and doubt; 

Heaven's chalice, not fine fancies, pour 

To save men now and evermore. 



EVIL IN THE WORLD AND ITS 
MINISTRY THERE 

In this perplexing, changeful life 
Evil and good are strangely blent; 
In greatest ill some good is found, 
With greatest good some ill is sent. 

The tempest, fiendlike in its rage, 
To fields and homes sad havoc brings, 
Yet, like an angel, freights away 
Contagion foul on lustral wings. 

The summer sun that pours his beams 
To light the world, give life and joys, 
Augments the toiler's heavy task, 
And often feeble life destroys. 

The breath that fans the brow of care 
May soon in wild tornado blow; 
The shower that quenches nature's thirst 
In hurtling flood may madly flow. 

The hated thing we get may bless, 

Our greatest loss may prove a gain; 

Fond Friendship's tender hand may smite, 

The fount of knowledge issue pain. 
13 



14 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

The wholesome law by evil lives, 

Ambition's crown is won by cost, 

To trial Virtue owes a debt, 

And heaven is gained through Eden lost. 

Strange paradox — the human heart! 
High purpose lives with base desire, 
And worship's flame is oft obscured 
By noxious fumes of passion's fire. 

Evil exists — within, without — 
Ubiquitous as light or air; 
Nor from its power is there escape. 
Its challenge meets us everywhere. 

Into this fair and virgin world 
The subtle serpent had brought sin 
If, made with sense of right and wrong, 
A moral creature he had been. 

Endowed with freedom, man brings sin. 
And sin hath need of tearful woes ; 
Thus evil through the world's long age 
A current all diffusive flows. 

It burdens beast and bird and bee. 
Affects the land and billowy main. 
Imbues the air, nor spares the light ; 
The whole creation groans in pain. 



EVIL IN THE WORLD 15 

Aiid yet not profitless this stream, 
For God makes use of good and ill; 
By His permission evil lives, 
And what can countervail His will? * * 

God loves not ill nor ill ordains ; 
He wills not ill nor ill creates ; 
He still forbids and punishes. 
Yet turns to use, the ill He hates. 

'Tis true that God the law ordains, — 
Each seed its own shall e'er repeat; 
Who sows to flesh must gather chaff, 
Who sows to spirit garners wheat. 

Yet e'en the whirlwind's chaff shall serve 
To feed desire to conquer ill ; 
Through struggle Virtue mounts her throne 
According to God's perfect will. 

We own God's right to grant free choice, 
Though freedom evil may purvey ; 
True love implies the power to hate, 
Obedience, power to disobey. 

The power inheres, but not the right, 

To choose the wrong where will is free, 

For conscience lives, and sternest law 

Forbids the choice with penalty. 

* The figures found in connection with "Preface" and 
poem, refer to criticisms and answers correspondingly 
numbered under "Replies to Critics." 



16 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

Perverted use of powers bestowed 
Is not the generous Giver's blame, 
But his who holds the sacred trust, 
And he must bear the guilt and shame. 

God wills that free man's will shall be, 
But not the evil it projects; 
He must permit the free will's choice. 
Though 'gainst His will that will elects. 

Free agency has yet its zone. 

Within a sovereign realm it lies ; 

All evil bounded God compels 

To swell His praise through earth and skies.' 

To human fall is closely joined 

Love's intervention all divine; 

While one o'er earth deep shadows casts. 

The other like the sun doth shine. 



Man's fall was into clearer light, — 
With opened eyes as God he stood; 
By knowing ill he also knew 
The beauty, power, and worth of good. 

Man's fall was into greater strength, — 
From Eden's enervating bower 
He went with virile brain and thews 
To win a world with lordly power."^ ^ 



EVIL IN THE WORLD 17 

Man's fall was forward into hope 
That springs eternal in the breast, 
Adorns each cloud with golden fringe, 
And pledges heaven's untroubled rest.^ 

Fair Modesty therein finds birth, — 
Suave charm is seen in charms concealed, 
And honored is Humility 
In beauty's artless blush revealed. ^^ 

Can wardrobe without cloth be made. 
Or thread and needles to sustain? 
Ay, leaves are deftly sewed and formed, 
For genius kindles in the brain. 

The procreative functions held 
Erstwhile unconscious, now awake; 
Fond parentage desired, each home 
Shall hence another Eden make. 



In her farewell to Paradise, 
Eve could lament to leave sweet flower. 
Fair fount, loved walk, and grateful shade. 
But not embellished nuptial bower.^^ 

The law man knew was that of works, — 
Do this and live; do that and die; 
The higher law of love appears 
When evil calls it from the sky. 



18 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

Yet not to man is credit due 
For opening love's sweet mystery; 
The starry choirs and angels sing^ — 
Christ is the key of history. 

Not one would claim that man foresaw 
Results, e'en in the least degree, 
When putting forth his hand, he took 
The fruit of that forbidden tree. 

One only law to him was given, — 
Of these trees eat, from that refrain ; 
No hint of tempter he received, 
Nor knew he aught of death or pain. 

He suffered not from noonday sun, 
Nor felt the chill of dew or rain. 
And when God's hand removed a rib 
In sleep profound, he knew no pain. 

Of evil capable he was. 
But not to' evil choice inclined; 
All from without temptation came. 
Not his the bent his offspring find. 

Like simple child he disobeyed. 
Nor good nor evil did he know ; 
He knew not what temptation was ; 
Mindless was he of weal or woe. 



EVIL IN THE WORLD 19 

While good and evil were unknown, 
No promise happy hope could wake, 
Nor threat of pending wrath and doom 
With fear the placid bosom shake. ^^ 

Nor do we palliate his guilt 

With studied show of mere pretense 

When we recall the mercy shown 

To those who plead "the first offense." 

And when the law was thus transgressed, 
The strict requital fed love's flame ; 
A higher type of man God wills. 
And greater glory to His name.^^ 

Uprightness, more than innocence, 
Obedience true of virtue born. 
And loyal love with liberty. 
Must now man's character adorn. 

God has for him a higher thought 
Than roseate morning's lavish dower ; 
High noon's estate and heaven's pure bliss 
Surpass the joys of Eden's bower. 

Creation, vast and marvelous, 
Must yield to glory far above, — 
Through sin's dark portals Jesus comes 
And founds a kingdom ruled by love. 



m THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

In all God's works and words and ways, 
One purpose high He executes, — 
That He may show Himself as God 
In all His wondrous attributes. 

Worlds must exist, for God has power; 
Design must show, for God is wise; 
And shall not evil contrast good 
To give God's love full exercise? 

To show Himself, to perfect man, 
God uses what He could not make, — 
A hostile force, opposing will. 
And thirst His pity springs to slake. 

God's finished work, called "very good," 
No blemish saw nor swift decay. 
No noxious weed the earth produced. 
Nor pain nor pest beset man's way. 

As Science, skilled in Nature's laws. 
Evolves new forms in flowers and fruits. 
So fecund earth, for man's "sake" cursed. 
To raid and scourge brings fresh recruits. 

What God created and approved 
Commands our love and guardian care; 
The serpent's seed demands our hate. 
Though "bruised heel" be ours to bear. 



EVIL IN THE WORLD 21 

The enemy the tares has sown; 
Yet noisome, hurtful, deadly things 
God uses for our discipline. 
And thus by them a blessing brings. 

Slight is the hurt, the blessing great, 

Of all who' toil beneath the curse 

Which shines so gemmed with promise bright, 

It gilds with hope the universe.^* 

When shown with its antithesis. 
The truth in strongest light appears ; 
How brief is man's mortality 
Compared with God's eternal years. 

Our knowledge is by contrasts gained, — 
We know the light because of shade ; 
Our joys we prize, for grief is felt 
When in the grave our hopes are laid. 

If nothing called forth pity's tears ; 
If none were weak, or poor, or lone ; 
If all were right and nothing wrong. 
The softest heart would turn to stone. ^^ 



What use were power where naught resists, 

Or pity where is no distress, 

Or pardon where no wrong is done, 

Or patience where no foes oppress? 



22 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

Now God is love, His followers kind, 
The sinner free forgiveness knows, 
Compassion shares Misfortune's pain, 
And mercy like a river flows. 

'Tis needful that off^enses come. 
Was uttered by the Master's voice ; 
Resistance lends to EflFort aid, 
But woe to him who sins from choice. 

"It must needs be." How kind those words 
Some treacherous cloud our eyes may veil; 
We know in part ; our will is weak ; 
The best and strongest sometimes fail. 

God's curse imposed now works sin's cure; 
Sore trials wake man's moral sense; 
Afflictions chasten spirits proud. 
And lead to humble penitence. 

Though willful sinners oft require 
Keen pain — the law's corrective rod — 
Yet sometimes sufferings are sent 
To manifest the works of God. 

And thus God's best may suffer most, 
Though sin and sorrow are akin; 
Were upright Job, the man born blind. 
And Jesus, sufferers for their sin.? 



EVIL IN THE WORLD 23 

As punishment, or discipline, 
Or that His glory God may show, 
We sorely suffer, nor see why, 
Nor is it needful we should know. 



Enough if ministry severe 
Its noble purpose shall secure 
And make this world a safer place 
Than Adam found in Eden pure. 

Whence comes the fullness of the stream 
In blessings to the thirsty vale? 
It nursed the breast of mountain cloud, 
Borne thence and torn by fiercest gale. 

And whence this peace, serene and deep. 
That makes life's dirge a joyful psalm? 
God's strong hand smote my wayward heart. 
Then gently poured sweet Gilead's balm. 

Between the oyster and its shell 
A grain of sand produces pain; 
Encisted there, what alchemy 
Can turn mute suffering into gain? 

Concentric folds of membrane laid — 
Tears calcified — are Nature's means 
To heal the wound and form a pearl 
To deck the coronet of queens. 



M THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

Howe'er benign, we cannot pray 

For sickness, poverty, or grief; 

Nor should we plead for what may harm — 

For riches, fame, or pain's relief. 

"If it be possible, O God, 
Let this most bitter cup pass by; 
Yet not my will, but Thine be done." 
Thus Jesus prayed; "Amen," we sigh. 

If I in my Gethsemane 

Can breathe the prayer of God's dear Son, 

Then I may face my Calvary 

And cry — "My Lord and I are one." 

The hordes of ill, the hosts of good, 
About us press with promise fair; 
Perchance the good is blindly spurned 
And ill embraced with eager care. 

We dare not choose, we do not know. 
What cup to drink, what voice believe; 
We only know our thirst is great 
And sweetest draughts may most deceive. ^^ 

For virtue's sake God gives His Jobs 
And Peters into Satan's hands ; 
Nor could His Christ the trial shun ; 
Who falls, yet rises, truly stands. 



EVIL IN THE WORLD 25 

Thou, Who the cruel wine press trod 

In sad Gethsemane alone, 

Who captive led Captivity, 

And didst for all our sins atone; 

Thou, Who for sifted Peter prayed 

He might the test of faith endure. 

Then cast on him a timely look — 

The look that saved — love's strongest lure; — 

Turn, look on us, ere faith quite fails ; 
Incline our hearts to things above. 
To take what comes and lean on God, 
For ALL works good to them that love. 



INTERLUDE 

God in His wisdom made the sun, 

With planets in his train, 
And countless suns and systems still 

Which realms of space contain. 

In wisdom God hung out the moon 
And did her course command, 

And not amiss He flung the stars 
From His Almighty hand. 

To all He gave important work, 
Assigned them power and place, 

Prescribed their orbit's wondrous path, 
And timed their tireless race. 

Precision all their movements marks. 
They all true balance keep. 

Their inclinations are exact 

As through deep space they sweep. 

Therefore the grateful seasons turn. 
Hence follow night and day. 

So ebb and flow the ocean's tides ; 
For WORLDS God's law obey. 



INTERLUDE Tt 

See how the face of nature fair 

God's limning doth forever bear ; 

His purpose grand in all is seen-— 

In ocean's surge and landscape's sheen, 

In dew-gemmed grass and blooming flowers, 

In rocks and glades, and oak that towers 

Umbrageous over vale and hill, 

Where nature freely works her will. 

The seed has germs to reproduce 

Its kind in numbers most profuse, 

And thus the husbandman well knows 

The source from which rich harvest grows. 

The birds that chirp their modest lays 
Or loudly sing their Maker's praise ; 
The beasts that toil, or lurk in lair ; 
E'en insects buzzing through the air; 
Reptiles that slink from glance of men ; 
The croakers of the dismal fen; 
And finny tribes that fill the deep ; — 
To instinct true, their place all keep. 
And be their mission good or ill, 
They ne'er transgress their Maker's will. 
This lesson, then, we learn with awe — 
All NATURE keeps God's perfect law. 



And can our God less mindful be 
Of those designed eternally 
His image pure to bear.? 



as THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

Has he no work, no place, no plan 
For noble, regal, godlike man. 
Who may His glory share? 

Where'er we look this truth is taught — 
Man lives in God's divinest thought, 

Has in His plans high place. 
As lord of all the world below. 
His work is great as angels know, — 

O happy human race. 

Yet man alone, with power to say, 
"I will," "I will not," breaks away 

And yields to passions base; 
His lofty lineage he belies 
And spurns the love no good denies, — 

Ah, wretched human race. 

A planet from its orbit hurled 
By force centrifugal — a world 

Enwrapped in doleful gloom — 
Is emblem of the fallen man 
Whose will would thwart his Maker's plan 

And rush him on to doom. 

But grace shall melt the hardest heart, 
And balm divine shall cure the smart 

Of sin's malignant sores. 
The Son of God for man hath died ; 
" 'Tis finished," on the cross He cried ; 

The Cross lost man restores. 



INTERLUDE 

Great God, we fall before Thy face 
And glad receive Thy saving grace, 

So fully, freely given. 
What joy, what ecstasy, what bliss 
When Thou from sin the soul dost kiss 

The night of storm is riven. 



EVIL IN HEAVEN AND ITS SUBJEC- 
TION EVERYV^HERE 

Evil in heaven ! Amazing fact, 
That angels left their pure estate ! 
How fell the first, the chief, the prince? 
What world could lure a soul so great? 

Endowed with power, enrobed in light, 
His headship angels glad to own, 
Too proud to render service high. 
He craved a kingdom, sought a throne. 

Did Lucifer, so near to God, 
Bright sun of heaven's glorious morn. 
Involve by sin the hosts he led 
As Adam did his race unborn? 

The facts we know would seem to point 
To parent, offspring, kindred all; 
One law for every living thing; 
"Seed of its kind" for great and small. 

When God would send His Son to earth, 
He must be parented like man; 
As baby bom in Joseph's home 
His wondrous life on earth began. 
30 



EVIL IN HEAVEN 31 

Or were angelic beings made 
Each one distinct and separate, 
No kinship felt, alone to hold 
Or leave at will his pure estate? 

Enough to know one angel proud, 
With ranks of pliant satellites, 
Dared challenge God's supremacy 
And disavow His sacred rights. 

The rebel hosts for conflict form 
And horrid war in heaven they wage ; 
There overcome, to earth they haste 
And pour on man their vengeful rage. 

But man, though like the angels free. 
Did not through vain ambition fall; 
The supple serpent Satan used. 
Of creatures craftiest of all, 

The serpent cursed beyond all hope. 
The human pair from Eden sent. 
Oh, why was Satan not rebuked 
Unless his sway some service meant.? 

Indeed, in heaven he still appeared. 
In council met with sons of God, 
And brought report of what he learned. 
As up and down the earth he trod. 



S2 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

To angels fallen into sin 
His tender mercy God reveals ; 
Methinks redemption they are given, 
Nor one in vain to Him appeals. 

Cannot God's Son the angels save 
And heaven's righteous law maintain, 
Since from foundation of the world 
The precious Lamb of God was slain? 

The voice the human flock obey 
The angels know who Christ's love share; 
Them He must bring His "other sheep" 
To form one fold, one Shepherd's care. 

As mercy moral law implies. 
And finite powers may mercy plead. 
So surely God must find a way 
To meet a sinning angel's need.^^ 

When Jesus came in human flesh, 

Thus lower made than Seraphim, 

God gave command throughout His worlds- 

"Let all the angels worship Him." 

Who disobeyed this righteous test, 
E'en tempting Jesus to rebel. 
Bore guilt God's justice could not brook. 
And swift from heaven like lightning fell. 



EVIL IN HEAVEN 

By blood of Lamb, o'ercome, cast out, 
To earth confined, let heaven rejoice; 
Our brethren there no more shall hear 
The serpent's false, accusing voice. 

Woe for the earth and for the sea ! 
To them the devil has come down ; 
As prince he moves the powers of air. 
As this world's god he wears the crown. 

The fabled Harpies, Furies, Fates, 
Producing storms and dire events. 
Were mystic hints of Satan's power 
In nature's active elements. 

He lays on men infirmities 

For which, alas, no cure is found; 

The woman bent and bowed Christ healed, 

Lo, eighteen years had Satan bound. 

His power is great, his time is short. 
He lays his lures on every hand. 
With skill provides what weakness wants ; 
Ah, who against his wiles can stand .^^ 

God is supreme ; He won in heaven 
When Michael 'gainst the dragon fought ; 
And Christ, in pure humanity. 
O'er Satan splendid triumph wrought. 



34 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

A moral government involves 
A power supreme o'er subjects free, 
And published law, adapted, just. 
Whose sanctions weigh eternally. 

Jehovah reigns, does not coerce. 
Constrains by love and wisdom's voice. 
Provides fair field, respects free will; 
Oh, therefore, let the earth rejoice. 

Evil abounds, but never rules. 
It still contends, but must retreat. 
While claiming all, it loses all. 
And leaves the record of defeat. 

The furnace heated seven fold 
Receives the Hebrew children bound. 
But fire their fetters only burns. 
For there the Son of God is found. 

In our dear Elder Brother's name. 
As more than conquerors we sing; 
The boasting Grave no victory claims ; 
And vaunting Death has lost his sting. 

All time, all things, — the thick events 
That crowd the earth or heavens above,- 
AU words and works, all joys and tears. 
Are servants of the God we love. 



EVIL IN HEAVEN 85 

E'en Satan is God's minister, 
And, though unwilling, serves Him well, 
Else God would banish him from earth, 
And justly cast him down to hell. 

To hell? Ah, not to dark despair; 
Sane law blest privilege provides; 
Unchanging goodness e'er invites ; 
Fair Hope, like Faith and Love, abides. 

"Until he finds," — oh, welcome words — 
The shepherd seeks the sheep astray; 
"Until she finds" the prized lost coin, 
The woman's search knows no delay. 

And thus in parable Christ shows 
How long He will His grace declare, 
"Until He finds," nor "wings of morn," 
Nor "bed in hell" defeats His care. 

Probation is a myth, as taught; 
Can fickle choice fix changeless fate? 
With life forever under law. 
No soul shall hopeless cry, "Too late." 

Too late to gather golden store. 
Too late Ambition's crown to win. 
Too late to use lost privilege, — 
But ne'er too late to cease from sin.^^ 



36 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

"I am the door; if any man 
Shall ope the door, I will come in," 
No time lock on this promise sure, 
"I will come in and save from sin." 

One, only one condition given. 
Though men another oft attach. 
Sweet fellowship is found whene'er 
Faith's fingers reach the ready latch. 

When thus we see Thee, loving Lord, 
Our dull delay we deep deplore. 
And rise and press with eager haste 
To open wide the welcome door. 

A wasted spring lean harvest brings, 
And age bemoans a youth misspent, 
Neglect may bring uncovered loss, — 
An everlasting punishment. 

Then whence this heaven of bliss secured.? 
Ah, not through our f orgetfulness ; 
Our sins behind God's back are cast 
When we in Christ's dear name confess. 



'Tis here or there or any place. 
High heaven is found, or deepest hell; 
Each is condition — bliss or woe — 
Wherever moral creatures dwell. 



EVIL IN HEAVEN 37 

God is the God of life, not death, 
His kingdom ruleth over all; 
His endless rule still signals hope; 
No ear too deaf to hear His call. 

Just punishment has purpose kind; 
For every sinner Jesus died; 
He sees the travail of His soul. 
And saving all, is satisfied. 

Nothing is lost ; the leaf that falls. 
Feeding the roots of yonder tree. 
Shall climb to life in flower and fruit, 
In golden summers yet to be. 

The rain descends and, warmed by sun. 
Returns ethereal to the skies, 
There soon compressed by cooling winds. 
Again it falls, again to rise. 

God sees each raindrop in its rounds — 
Above, below, through all the years. 
And knows it still in mist or stream. 
In dew gemmed flowers or flowing tears. 

"Gather the fragments," Jesus said, 
And thus to meanest things applied 
His holy will concerning all. 
And most of all for whom He died. 



38 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

Ideals — prophecies of truth — 
In time's ripe fullness are concrete ; 
To loftiest fancies Art gives form, 
The dreams of Science spurn defeat. 

Ideals — too good to' have been, 
So good they must be, soon or late, 
Embrace for all this wholesome hope — 
The endless, holy, blissful state. 

For all mankind Christ came and died; 
With thought of all He went away; 
To all the Comforter He sends 
To teach His truth and give it sway. 

More potent now the words of Christ 
Than when from His own lips they fell ; 
And, added truth, the "things to come," 
Yea, "all things" e'en, shall He foretell. 

He knows no bounds ; not "straightened" He, 
But "searches all," "convinces all," 
"Shows all their sin," "commands return," 
And "mighty signs" enforce His call. 

Triumphant triune God, Thy work 
Complete in earth and heaven I boast. 
A sinless universe must come; 
My faith is in the Holy Ghost. 



EVIL IN HEAVEN 39 

We know not now, though sons of God, 
What we shall be when Christ appears, 
When face to face Him we shall see 
With sight undimmed by clouds or tears. 

We see Him not with vision clear, 
Else our poor dross would turn to gold ; 
But in the light of God's white throne 
His glory bright we shall behold. 

Yet not at once the full orbed view. 
Nor sudden comes the wondrous change; 
The law of moral life is growth. 
Whatever be its realm or range. 

"When He appears." Oh, glorious sight! 
The worlds subdued before Him fall ; 
Subjected all, Himself subjects 
To God the Father— "All in all." 



Not once surprised nor unprepared. 
Nor facing possible defeat, 
God rules, and good and evil join 
To make His victory complete: — 

Complete ; nor man nor angel lost. 
Nor evil lifts defiant head ; 
Christ's enemies are now His friends ; 
E'en Death, His last grim foe, is dead. 



40 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

As one who seeks the fields in spring, 
Reviving nature's hope perceives, 
Discovers buds of promise full. 
And sweet arbutus 'neath dead leaves. 

So he who loves God's word will find, 
Assisted by the Spirit's breath. 
Truth's radiant garb in forms effete, 
And throbbing life mid husks of death. 

Ah, who can say ill has no' place 
In realms by moral creatures trod. 
Or who deny that it proclaims 
The wisdom, power, and love of God? 

Faith sees the universe at peace. 
From evil gain, approved God's ways,^* 
All knees in humble worship bent, 
And vocal every tongue with praise.^^ 



A REFLECTION 

Methinks the birds that never sing, 
Within their breasts have songs ; 

They love and mate, and show the joy 
To which all song belongs. 

And birds that sing, more music have 
Than their few notes impart ; 

Their voiceless airs are heard by Him 
Who tunes the choiring heart. 

So multitudes who lack the skill 
To form the rhythmic line, 

The soul of poesy possess, 
And feel the flame divine. 

And poets who most sweetly sing 
Have sweeter songs unsung. 

Melodious whispers from above. 
For which there is no tongue. 

God's gifts are good ; enough to know 
His will His pleasure brings ; 

Who made and touches, gladly hears 
The harp of thousand strings. 
41 



4a THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

Sublime the thrill of those mute songs 
Not tuned for stolid ears; 

His life they make an epic grand 
Whose soul their cadence hears. 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 



REPLIES TO CRITICS. 

1. "/tz your Preface you say, ^The power of 
free choice implies both good and evil as possi- 
ble. And this is as true of God as it is of His 
moral creatures, for He is free. He cannot 
confer a power which He does not possess.* 
Does not the President of the United States 
confer a power which he does not possess in his 
appointment of postmasters? I hold that God 
is not free; He cannot choose evil." — a. e. d. 

That which is morally impossible may be 
absolutely possible. Our claim that God is free 
in the absolute sense is justified by the reason 
assigned. If further proof is desired, it is 
found in the nature of goodness, which to be 
praiseworthy must be voluntary, just as evil 
to be blamed must be chosen. 

The Federal Government forms, owns, and 
controls the whole postal system. It has made 
a class of postojffices appointive, and the presi- 
dent is the government's representative, as also 
is the postmaster, in the discharge of official 
duties. The government confers the power 
which it alone possesses. Its servants may 
come and its servants may go, but the govern- 
ment, as the highest expression of the sovereign 
people, goes on forever. 
45 



46 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

It is true that God, as God, cannot choose 
evil. This leads me to a position beyond that 
which is taken by many who deny God's absolute 
freedom. With God, as such, there is only the 
superlative degree. Good and better, as mean- 
ing less than the best, are not in His vocabulary. 
There are those who ask, "Why is the world as 
it is, when God might have made it sO' differ- 
ently?" Leibnitz, a celebrated German philos- 
opher, held that "God saw an infinite number 
of worlds before Him as possible." I hold that 
the infinitely perfect Being must be actuated by 
the perfect conception. In the creation and 
government of the universe He is bound by His 
very nature in all things to do His best. Nei- 
ther suns nor planets could better serve the high 
purpose of their existence. Angels in their 
realm are the complete expression of God's per- 
fect ideal concerning them. Man, crowned 
with freedom, and this world as his starting 
point could not have been made otherwise. 
Nor beast nor bird nor butterfly, as such and 
in their respective spheres, could be improved. 
Perfection stamps every thought and action 
and purpose of God. To the question, "Why 
hast Thou made me thus .?" there can be but one 
answer; it was the best that God could do. 
When God surveys all that He has made or done 
or spoken, He pronounces it "very good," — 
the best, with the end in view, that infinite wis- 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 47 

dom could devise or power execute or love con- 
template. The works of the Lord, like His 
law, are perfect. Instead of there being an 
infinite number of possible ways open before 
God, there is ever but one way and that is not 
the good nor the better, but the best way. 
Even morally our world is as good as God has 
been able to make it. God, as God, must do 
His best and be so unchangeable in respect to 
His own perfections and the principles of His 
administration as to be without the "shadow 
of turning." 

Such a God — choosing to be such — who would 
not adore.? His character is the source of our 
hope, our joy and our confidence; our incentive 
to watchfulness, prayer, and fidelity ; our en- 
couragement to the practice of every virtue 
and the cultivation of every grace. If God be 
so unchangeable in His attributes and character 
that He must do for us always that which is 
the best that our circumstances will allow, then 
it follows that in His manifestations He is the 
most changeable, the most responsive being in 
the universe, every moment suiting His action 
toward us according to our changing conditions 
and relations. When we turn toward Him, He 
turns toward us ; when we are tempted, He is 
concerned; when we pray. He listens; when 
we strive, He assists ; when we weep. He com- 
forts. It becomes us, therefore, to come into 



48 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

closest relation of loving obedience to God so 
that His best for us may not be punishment 
and pain, but pardon and purity and peace. 
This view renders superfluous any test, scien- 
tific or otherwise, of the value and efficacy of 
prayer. > 

2. "7f I take exception to anything in your 
Preface it is to: ^It was necessary for God to 
permit evil,' etc. I infer that you mean He 
could not prevent it.'' — d. c. b. 

You state my position correctly. While to 
permit implies the power to prevent, yet by the 
creation of free beings God to a limited extent 
surrenders that power. He cannot prevent 
the exercise of the creature's given power of 
freedom. He cannot prevent evil if the free 
agent chooses it. He may deny the right to 
choose it by forbidding it; He may attach to 
evil choice painful consequences and encourage 
the choice of good by loftiest motives, but be- 
yond this on any principle of justice, He can- 
not go. 

I make no distinctions in my conclusions be- 
tween evils — physical or moral, original or con- 
sequential, parental or progenial. Stress is 
laid upon the fact that God uses evil of every 
kind and that He gives it such a ministry as 
justifies Him in the creation of free beings, 
under law, while foreseeing the full character 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 49 

and extent of the evil which they would choose. 
Freedom does not necessitate evil choice, there- 
fore God could create free beings, knowing that 
they would choose evil; knowing, also, that He 
could make good use of that evil. Now, having 
created such beings, God cannot prevent by 
the display of His almightiness the exercise of 
their given power. To do so would destroy 
their moral responsibility and His moral gov- 
ernment. 

Calvinism in some of its aspects has cast a 
baneful shadow over the theology of Christen- 
dom. Theologians have been frightened by the 
cry of "divided sovereignty." But the sover- 
eign choice of the free agent has not been 
usurped. God has yielded it, and not only so. 
He has hedged it about with prohibitions and 
penalties and limited it to the fullest degree 
consistent with perfect moral agency. More- 
over, while He yields limited supremacy over 
the will. He retains absolute sovereignty over 
the resulting act, compelling the wrath of free 
creatures to praise Him. ' 

So related and ordered are the zone of the 
creature's moral agency and the realm of God's 
moral sovereignty that any infringement of^one 
upon the other is impossible. God cannot en- 
ter the zone of free agency with any compelling 
power over the will. Look at that first diso- 
bedience in Eden. The first Adam stood in the 



50 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

presence of evil, unaided and alone. God saw 
the approach of the serpent, observed his in- 
sinuating address, heard His own command 
contradicted, realized fully the gradual yield- 
ing of Adam's will and what the result would be, 
yet gave no sign of His presence, no signal of 
warning, no outward or inward influence, to 
shape the fateful decision. Adam stood alone 
in that crisis as the second Adam, four thou- 
sand years later, stood alone in that dark hour 
when He cried, "My God, my God, why hast 
Thou forsaken me?" 

God saw the serpent of Satan possessed, 
Approach mother Eve with exquisite grace; 
He saw falsehood clothed with specious half-truths, 
And knew the result, yet hid He His face. 

Why? Because, having made our first parents 
perfect moral beings and given them perfect 
law for the government of their moral conduct 
— a law that was clear to their understanding 
and appealed to their conscience, — He could 
not interfere with their power of free choice ; 
He must respect His own gift — free will. 

Occasionally we hear someone say^ "If I had 
God's power, I would not allow men to sin and 
wreck themselves and bring so much suffering 
upon the innocent." But God will exercise His 
power only in righteousness. He derives no 
pleasure from evil and does everything He can 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 51 

to prevent it. Yet God must suffer evil in the 
event of its choice, in order to have moral crea- 
tures in His universe under a beneficent moral 
government. Still, evil must ever bow to the 
Divine prerogative of supreme moral sover- 
eignty. 

This view not only relieves God from every 
degree of responsibility for the existence of 
evil in the universe, but it removes the prevail- 
ing difficulties which have made it so hard, 
sometimes, to love Him. Calvinists have taught 
that "All is of God, ordained by Him." To 
the average pmind this view makes God the 
author of evil. The view of Arminians is 
scarcely better, which is that God could, if He 
would, avert the evil and the anguish. It is 
impossible for the ordinary mind not to feel 
that this view makes God cruel. 

I have a better faith. I believe that God, 
while He made me capable of evil, made me 
wisely, governs me kindly, loves me tenderly, 
and does the best He can for me even in cir- 
cumstances for which He is not responsible ; 
that if He cannot withhold me from choosing 
evil. He will overrule my evil for good, and that 
if He cannot remove the "thorn" from which I 
suffer. He will glorify Himself by giving me 
grace to bear it, and make it work out for me, 
under conditions which I can control, a far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 



52 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

In this faith His yoke is easy and His burden 
light. 

S. " 'Is evil needful in the universe?' I 
answer y no; for God forbade it in advance. 
He would not forbid what was needful.*' — 

J. w. A. 

I answer, no and yes. It is not necessary, as 
a fact, undeniably, absolutely. If it were, 
God would be responsible for it; nor could 
He forbid it, for it could not be prevented. 

Evil is absolutely necessary as a possibility 
to free moral agents. It is absolutely neces- 
sary as a possibility where good is possible. 
As a possibility evil is eternal. As a fact evil 
is temporal. For the eternal possibility of evil 
God is responsible. For the temporal fact of 
evil the free moral creature is responsible. 

Evil as a fact is needful conditionally. It 
is needful in order to obtain certain ends or 
results, as tools are necessary to profitable la- 
bor, or clothing to greatest comfort, or schools 
and teachers to higher education. No one 
should deny, I think, that evil is needful in or- 
der to show us God in the transcend,ently 
beautiful side of His character. Evil was 
necessary in order that Christ might come. 
True, God forbade it in advance, for the law 
must conform to the normal and the perfect. 

You are familiar with maple sugar making. 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 53 

Well, the magnificent maple tree might have 
stood on the hillside in the beauty of unmarred 
perfection and the world remained ignorant of 
the sweetness of its sap, had not some woods- 
man wounded it with a blow of his keen-edged 
ax. But from that wound there flows in profu- 
sion its very life to nourish and regale even the 
one who gave the cruel stroke. To obtain the 
delicious sugar, however, the wound was needful. 
So God might have occupied His throne as 
Creator and Lawgiver, displaying the evidences 
of His wisdom and power on every hand, and 
the world never have known Him in the tender- 
ness of His nature, had not our first parents in 
Eden wounded Him by their disobedience. But 
from that wound has poured the sweetness of 
His love and His very life, sujfficient for the 
nourishment and regalement not only of Adam 
and Eve, but of every member of their sin-con- 
tinuing race. Yet for this manifestation of 
the heart of God the introduction of evil was 
needful. 

4<." Man's will can 'countervaiV His will.'' — 

I.. D. w. 

The word "countervail" has been carefully 
chosen. It means to offset, to counterbalance, 
to oppose with equal power. Man can disobey 
God's will, but if he can oppose it successfully, 
he is therein the equal of God. The finite will 



54 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

never can oppose with equal power the Infinite 
will. The power, not the right, to oppose the 
Divine will is God-given. When Pilate said to 
Jesus, "Knowest Thou not that I have power 
to release Thee and have power to crucify 
Thee?" Jesus answered him, "Thou wouldst 
have no power against Me except it were given 
thee from above." God could not confer a 
power superior to His own and He would not 
confer a power equal to His own. He would 
not render possible His own defeat by such gen- 
erous equipment of His creature. 

Moreover, God's will is not so pivoted that 
the completed human act of disobedience can 
void the far reaching Divine purpose. That 
by which man intends to thwart God's plan 
often becomes the means of its speedier ful- 
fillment. The act committed, man is done with 
it; but it is then that God begins with it. 
The act committed passes from the limited 
zone of man's freedom to the unlimited realm 
of Divine sovereignty. God is not dependent 
on man's fidelity for the accomplishment of 
His purposes. Man does not work God's will. 
God works His own will. He who sees the end 
from the beginning; who sitteth upon the circle 
of the heavens and turns the seasons round; 
whose moral administration involves Him in no 
difficulties, and who cannot be surprised or 
disappointed or defeated, works His own per- 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 55 

feet will, and so instead of its being counter- 
vailed in any instance, in the end it is always 
accomplished. Read the second Psalm. "The 
nations rage, the peoples make vain plans, the 
kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers 
take counsel together, against the Lord and 
against His anointed; He that sitteth in the 
heavens shall laugh ; the Lord shall have them 
in derision." 

While there is much that is not according to 
God's will, yet nothing can defeat His will. 
Time is an important element in the struggle 
between right and Avrong, but the issue is not 
doubtful. 

5. "/ seriously question the truth of your 
lines : 

* All evil, hounded, God compels 
To swell His praise through earth and skies.* " 

— s. J. M. 

It is, indeed, difficult to see how the meanness 
and wickedness of men can be made to swell 
God's praise. But God permits evil, for we 
see it all about us. God overrules evil, for it 
is among the "all things" that work together 
for good to them that love Him. God limits 
evil, for unlimited evil would destroy His moral 
government. In permitting and limiting evil, 
God has a purpose and all God's purposes are 
high and worthy. Now in limiting evil, where 



56 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

will He draw the line? Will He limit it to 
what He can control, or will He let it get the 
best of Him? The question answers itself. 

Apropos of the limiting of evil is the follow- 
ing passage in "Titus Andronicus,'^ which 
Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Aaron, 
the Moor: — 

"I am no baby, I, that with base prayers 
I should repent the evils I have done; 
Ten thousand, worse than ever yet I did. 
Would I perform if I might have my will." 

As the Rev. Joseph Cook observes: "It is 
certainly significant that Shakespeare, who has 
given us the most complete science of the hu- 
man passions ever written, should teach that 
men are not permitted to do' all that they would 
of evil." 

We may add, if men are limited, so is Satan. 
Indeed, we have one notable instance of Satan's 
limitations. When God first delivered Job into 
Satan's hands for trial, Satan could touch 
Job's possessions, but not his person. In the 
second trial he could touch Job's person, but 
not his life. The psalmist says (Psalms 76: 
10) : "Surely the wrath of man shall praise 
Thee, O Lord, and the remainder of wrath 
Thou shalt restrain." If these words mean 
anything, they teach that God will allow no 
more evil than He can overrule for good. In 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 57 

restraining what He cannot use and in using 
what He permits. His name is honored in earth 

and skies. '< 

6. *'Did not man really know the power of 
good before the fall?*' — s. j. m. 

In Genesis 3:2 we read: "And the Lord 
God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, 
to know good and evil." I doubt if God ever 
says anything superfluous, much less mislead- 
ing. He would not say good and evil if He 
meant only evil. 

The Infinite One knows absolutely, while our 
knowledge is largely by comparison, as hard 
and soft, wet and dry, sweet and sour, light 
and shade, rich and poor, high and low, near 
and distant, and, also, good and evil. We 
really know not the one until we know the 
other. 

Experience, also, is a source of our knowl- 
edge, and man in experiencing the fall did not 
lose his God-likeness, as many teach, but en- 
hanced it in one respect, at least, viz., "to 
know good and evil." 

7. "/ cannot believe that the fall of Adam 
was mto 'clearer lighf or 'greater strength,' " 

1 — s. J. M. 

In reading the verses which speak of the fall 
as being advantageous in respect to light and 



58 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

strength, it is necessary to connect the lines 
preceding : 

"To human fall is closely joined 
Love's intervention all divine." 

It is because of love's intervention, which in- 
cludes the curse pronounced upon man, that 
Adam's fall was into clearer light and greater 
strength. Love's intervention did more than 
merely to make good the loss involved by the 
fall of our first parents. Whether every fall 
since Adam's has been a fall upward, I do not 
know. It cannot be denied that men may profit 
by their faults and failures if they will. 
Tennyson's lines are no less true than they are 
beautiful : ! 

"I hold it truth, with him who sings 
To one clear harp in divers tones, 
That men may rise on stepping-stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things." 

I believe that all evil, whether of sin or sor- 
row, has its ministry, either positive or possi- 
ble. We may not be able always to discern 
the divine service which weakness and wicked- 
ness are compelled to render, but may we not 
trace enough to establish the fact.^ Does not 
the indifference of the heartless priest and 
Levite magnify the tender humanity of the 
good Samaritan,^ Does not the prodigal 
teach us a lesson of our heavenly Father's 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 59 

mercy? Is not Peter's denial of Christ made 
a blessing to the Church through all time, as 
it was the occasion of defining in the clearest 
manner possible the work of a faithful and 
efficient minister? Would we have had some 
of the most precious truths contained in the 
gospel but for the narrow bigotry of scribe 
and Pharisee? Do we not love Jesus better 
for not having where to lay His head than if 
He had reposed on pillows of down in the palace 
of a king? If the woman had not been taken 
in adultery, we should not have heard His ten- 
der words: "Neither do I condemn thee." If 
His enemies had not nailed Him to the cross, 
we should not hear falling from His lips those 
words of infinite sweetness : "Father, forgive 
them; they know not what they do." 

St. Paul found such meaning and blessing 
in the "thorn in his flesh" that he came to glory 
in his infirmities, and Christians ever since, be- 
cause of it, have trusted God more fully for 
grace to bear each his own peculiar trial. 

That which is base, as well as that which is 
noble, comes to us in blessing by the power 
and word of God. There are angels that 
climb up to us from below as well as those that 
descend upon us from above. 

8. *'Was Eden*s 'enervating hower' fit to be 
pronounced 'very good'?'' — j. w. a. 



60 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

There is no doubt that Eden's bower was 
perfectly suited to Adam and Eve for the brief 
time which God well knew they would occupy 
it, and, therefore, very good. If it was not 
enervating before the fall, it would certainly 
prove so afterward, and God mercifully drove 
them out of it. We now develop strength by 
enduring hardness, nor can we conceive of ease 
as developing either brawn or brain. 

9. ^'You say, * Man's fall was forward into 
hope,' Are the unf alien angels hopeless? I 
never fall into an old cellar that I may secure 
the hope of getting out.''' — j. w. a. 

Yet you must admit that having fallen into 
an old cellar, your hope becomes more active 
and you become more conscious of its reality. 
That our first parents in Eden had the hope 
faculty there is no doubt ; but was there scope 
for its exercise? Notwithstanding the fact 
that the paradise of Adam and Eve was an 
earthly one, there is no reason to think that 
they were at all dissatisfied with it. They had 
the stream, the foliage, the birds, the balmy 
air, and the soft blue sky. They had no use 
for raiment, and they ate their food without 
work or weariness. Evidently they were con- 
tented, knowing nothing of hope that stimu- 
lates to effort for the betterment of conditions. 

Probably the unfallen angels, if there are 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 61 

such, are not, strictly speaking, without hope. 
"Which things the angels desire to look into," 
would indicate that they hope for more exten- 
sive knowledge. They also may hope for the 
good of the human race, for they know about 
us and our needs. But hope, as we understand 
it, would seem to belong to an imperfect state. 
Whether it is increased or diminished by 
fruition may be a question, but "Hope that is 
seen is not hope," and the angels with God, in 
whose presence is fullness of joy, are satisfied. 

10. " 'Fair Modesty therein finds hirthj* 
Are not all holy beings modest?" — j. w. a. 

Well, it cannot be supposed that they are 
immodest. Before the fall, Adam and Eve 
"were both naked and were not ashamed." Im- 
mediately after the fall "their eyes were 
opened and they knew that they were naked; 
and they made for themselves aprons of fig 
leaves." There was then the birth of some- 
thing new in this world, which I call modesty. 
Holy beings are neither modest nor immodest, 
as we understand the term. They are neither 
bold nor timid, forward nor shy, obtrusive nor 
reserved, but preserve the happy medium. I 
refer to the modesty that is the offspring of 
conscious limitations, that is bom of a sense 
of weakness or ignorance or, as in Adam's case, 
of guilt. In one of his sermons the Rev. F. 



62 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

W. Robertson says: "Modesty is seldom the 
attribute of the untried. Modesty is a thing 
we learn generally by shame and failure." 
Surely holy beings are not modest in the Ro- 
bertsonian sense. 

11. "/ question that the -first 'pair in their 
innocence were unconscious of sex; that, made 
capable of reproduction, they had no use for 
that capacity; that one of the results of sin 
should he pain in childbirth if there was not 
intended to be painless childbirth in the sinless 
stated* — J. w. A. 

This criticism, embodying the popular belief 
on this point, seems plausible but is not un- 
answerable. 

Presumably Adam and Eve from the begin- 
ning had eyebrows, but they had no use for 
those hirsute arches until the curse compelled 
them to eat their bread by the sweat of their 
face. If man had one thing that he had no use 
for in his innocence, he may have had other 
things and faculties. 

When those two disciples, Cleopas and his 
companion, were joined by Christ on their way 
to Emmaus, until He became a guest in their 
home "their eyes were holden that they should 
riot know Him." So the consciousness of 
Adam and Eve in relation to some of their 
bodily functions may have been held from them 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 63 

for a time, and held in love, as were the eyes 
of the two disciples. 

Everyone possesses faculties that are dor- 
mant and unrealized until occasion calls them 
forth. How often men awake to self-knowl- 
edge and astonish both themselves and the com- 
munity by their power. Is it likely that our 
first parents were at once fully and clearly 
aware of all their physical and mental capabil- 
ities? Is it not far more probable that they 
came to the consciousness of their faculties 
gradually and as necessity called them into 
exercise ? ' 

Prior to the fall there had been no desire 
for parentage. After the fall and after God 
had driven our first parents from the garden 
of Eden, we read: "Adam knew his wife and 
she conceived and bare a son." Would God 
have said that if Adam had known Eve in the 
same sense before? Again, after the fall and 
after banishment from Eden, God said to the 
woman, as a part of His curse upon her: "Thy 
desire shall be to thy husband." Would God 
have said that if her desire had been so in 
Eden? 

Our view is confirmed by Romans 11 :32; 
"For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, 
that He might have mercy upon all." It is 
the most important verse in a very remarkable 
chapter. Those who sympathize with our 



64 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

critic (and they include Bible students gener- 
ally) on account of their fundamental error in 
relation to the propagation of the race before 
the fall, have given to that verse either no in- 
terpretation or a very feeble one. Do we not 
see in that verse that God, who foresaw man's 
fall, withheld from our first parents the desire 
of any expression of their reproductive facul- 
ties, and even held them unconscious of those 
faculties, until such a time as their fall would 
become a voluntary act and fact? How many 
ways has God of shutting up all unto disobe- 
dience? He has only one way, and that is by 
shutting them up to be the offspring of volun- 
tarily disobedient first parents. Any other 
way would make God responsible for the diso- 
bedience committed, while now every man's 
moral act is a free act for which he is account- 
able. And God has only one way that we know 
about of showing the mercy of salvation to all, 
which is by the equal application to all of the 
atonement of Jesus Christ, "who died once for 
all." 

In view of this interpretation, how pertinent 
the exclamation of the apostle that immediately 
follows, unaccountable on any other theory, 
"O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom 
and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are 
His judgments and His ways past finding 
out." 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 65 

But why pain in childbirth? You assume 
that it is one of the results of sin, but that is 
only an assumption. I answer that it is sim- 
ply and solely because God said: "In sorrow 
thou shalt bring forth children." True, He 
could not say it before the fall, but in view of 
our welfare it was necessary for Him to say 
it after the fall if He would continue the race. 
The reason underlying it is not difficult to dis- 
cover. Just as the ground was cursed, not for 
man's sin, but for man's sake ; not for his 
punishment, but for his development ; so pain 
should attend childbirth for the same reason, — 
not as the payment of a penalty, but for the 
perfection of virtues. As cost and estimated 
value are closely related, so the act of bring- 
ing a child into the world through pain would 
make it a serious and solemn thing, and would 
ensure for the child in its long period of help- 
lessness the tender love and the unwearied sac- 
rifices which its condition should demand. A 
curse so laden with blessing both to parent 
and child is worthy of our God. 

In Eve's "Farewell to Paradise," Milton, 
with the exquisite touches of Fancy's pencil, 
represents Eve as leaving all the attractions of 
Eden with comparative tranquillity except her 
nuptial bower which she had beautified with gar- 
lands formed and placed by her own hands. 
But error may be made to appear in array as 



66 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

beautiful as the garb of truth. Indeed, truth 
is not dependent upon its vesture. ' 

Oh, it is so hard to get away from the pre- 
judices imbibed from our childhood. We are 
so in the habit of looking upon the elements 
of the curse which followed the fall as being 
altogether penal that we lose sight of the fact 
that they contain less of hurt than of healing. 

IS. "// 'like simple child he disobeyed,' was 
Adam responsible?'' — s. j. m. 

We do not treat a child who understands our 
commands as irresponsible when disobedient to 
them. The command alone makes disobedience 
wrong and the disobedient guilty and subject to 
just correction. Adam had the command, which 
he understood. The accompanying threat of 
death in case he disobeyed could have no special 
deterrent effect, for he knew nothing of death, 
never having seen it. It could mean little 
more to' him than the threat of a whipping 
would mean to a child who had never seen or 
felt any kind of punishment. And yet, as law 
implies a penalty, it was necessary to state 
the penalty which infraction of the law would 
incur. 

It may be pertinent to add in this connection 
that such disobedience not only receives but 
deserves mercy, without detracting from grace, 
to the extent to which the creature limitations 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 67 

may plead. When I think of man in Eden as 
God's child, with powers of perception limited, 
with capacity for enjoyment or suffering al- 
most unlimited, and of the palliating circum- 
stances attending his sin, I think I can see that 
such conditions should create in the loving heart 
of God a sense of obligation such as He has 
implanted in me toward my disobedient child, 
— the feeling that it is my duty as a parent 
to do all in my power to bring about reconcilia- 
tion and a mutual relation of love and loyalty. 
I cannot say, therefore, what often I have 
heard said, that God was under no obligation 
to provide salvation for fallen man on condi- 
tions within his power to meet. I do not affirm 
that God was under such obligation, but I do 
know that love compels, that limitations plead, 
that creation implies responsibility, and that 
parental and filial relations impose solemn and 
unceasing obligations. From the death pen- 
alty, incurred as Adam incurred it, it seems 
to me that not only mercy but justice required 
some measure of relief if relief were possible. 

13 " 'A higher type of man He wills.'' A 
different type, I admit; is the reformed drunk- 
ard a higher type than the abstainer?'^ 

— J. w. A. 

No, the reformed drunkard is not a higher 
type of man than the abstainer; but the well 



68 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

born, well bred, virtuous, God fearing, hope 
inspired man of to-day is a higher type than 
the man in Eden who fell before his first temp- 
tation. Adam had innocence and so has the 
sweet babe that lies in the cradle; but God's 
man now has virtue, which is goodness under 
trial. Adam was obedient when it was easier 
to be so than otherwise ; but God's man now 
is obedient from choice in the face of tempta- 
tion. Adam had love, but it was weak com- 
pared with that loyal, tested love which binds 
the believing heart to God through long years 
and still cries out: "Whom have I in Heaven 
but Thee and there is none upon the earth that 
I desire besides Thee." The Christian, the 
man whose faculties are all developed, yet di- 
rected and controlled, is the highest type of 
man. 

Having created us with varied capabilities, 
God would develop and perfect them. Having 
given to us the faculty of love. He would call 
it forth in expressions unknown and impossible 
in Eden. He would call this faculty into exer- 
cise in expressions of sympathy, compassion, 
and pity. This can be done by virtue of the 
curse which God pronounced upon man. In a 
word, it can be done through the discipline of 
suffering. Even Christ, who came into the 
world on moral equality with Adam, was "made 
perfect through suffering." Either these 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 69 

words are meaningless or the faultless Son of 
God received, as "the man of sorrows," some 
higher consciousness, some additional qualifica- 
tion, some increase of light, or a more sympa- 
thetic relation to humanity, that made Him a 
higher type of High Priest and Savior than 
He otherwise could have been. And God 
would bring us through suffering into fellow- 
ship with Christ's suffering. He would have 
us partakers of Christ's character — "grace for 
grace." There is possible, therefore, in this 
world a nobler manhood than Eden knew. If 
the sinless second Adam received benefit from 
suffering, then He became, to the extent of 
the benefit thereby secured, superior to the sin- 
less first Adam in pure but painless Eden. It 
is our privilege to bear the likeness, not of the 
first, but of the second Adam. 

14. **/ must protest against the doctrine ex- 
pressed in the words: 

* Slight is the hurt, the blessing great. 
Of all who toil beneath the curse/ 

There can be no comparison between the curse 
and the blessing. The coming of sin into the 
world is an irreparable calamity. Our world 
is poorer and heaven will be poorer because 
there is forever the stain of sin upon the great 
white throne. All the palliating things which 



70 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

may he spoken will not efface the fact that 
God's universe without the curse upon it made 
necessary by the fall would have possessed a 
luster of which we can never so much as dream. 
, . . The glory of God will always be less he- 
cause of the human choice of evil. Had man- 
kind been always good, God*s glory in the end 
would have been immeasurably greater. . . . 
*' *High noon's estate and heaven*s pure bliss T 
are indeed priceless heritages, but it is impossi- 
ble to think that they would not be dim glories 
beside the joys which would have grown out of 
'Eden*s bower' had man been true to the higher 
destiny which God would have given him. . . . 
The benefits which may accrue to men through 
the existence of evil can never in all eternity 
equal the sum total of curse. . . . To the man 
who has felt upon his soul the stain of sin, 
heaven itself will be a state of modified happi- 
ness. To such a man, there is an infinite 
tragedy in the fact that 'through sin's dark 
portals Jesus comes,' and the good which He 
brings in His bloody train, indispensable as 
it is to sinful men, is purchased at an unneces- 
sary cost and is less than would have accrued 
to men had there been no sini . . . My con- 
ception is that in creating such a world as this 
one, God had regard to the end. Rather than 
deprive a race of finite beings whom He might 
create, of the blessings of fellowship with Him- 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 71 

self, even though He foresees the certain dis- 
aster and must he satisfied with a second best 
world, God permits even the fall and the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world and the 
final universe wherein there is darkness forever 
for a part of His race, for by so doing He 
gives eternal life to some, and this, even under 
the modified light of such a heaven, is better 
than no life at all for any,'' — g. w. o. 

My brother, I appreciate your full and frank 
criticism of one of the central doctrines of my 
poem. You will pardon me if I find excep- 
tional pleasure in attempting to answer it. I 
like its ring of positiveness. Where others 
question, you dissent. Instead of expressing 
doubt of my view, you state clearly your own 
opposite view. It is all the more interesting 
since it reflects, as you tell me, the teaching 
which you received at the seminary, which I 
know to be one of the leading theological 
schools of a great Church. 

The view which you have so well expressed 
I once entertained, but the more I tried to de- 
fend it the less firmly I held it. At length I 
gave it up altogether. I found many reasons 
urging a radical change of opinion. The poem 
contains some of them. It justifies God in 
making evil possible by the creation of free 
beings because He foresaw that He could make 
good use of evil in the event of its existence. 



7a THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

That, I think, is a better justification than 
yours — that "eternal life for some, with dark- 
ness forever for many, is better than no life 
at all for any." Your view places God on the 
losing side in a serious struggle. 

The poem shows that the curse that follows 
the introduction of evil into the world is for 
man's "sake" ; that is, the curse in all its 
features and effects in man's condition outside 
of Eden is a blessing. Instead of saying that 
the curse which God pronounced upon the race 
was "made necessary by the fall," I should say 
that it was necessary to make it possible for 
God to continue the race, and to continue it 
in hope, after the fall. And this is a most 
important distinction. It helps to solve, in- 
deed it solves, the so-called "mystery of suf- 
fering." Your view makes the common ills of 
life penal; infants are treated as sinners be- 
cause they suifer. 

The curse, involving toil, pain, death, and 
their attendant sorrows, as we know them, is 
in no sense or degree the punishment of Adam's 
sin or of our sin. The penalty which our first 
parents incurred was not suspended but exe- 
cuted. Christ, as the second Adam, suffered 
the punishment of the first Adam's sin. But 
for love's intervention the race would have ended 
then and there. We have no relation to the 
original law given to Adam nor to its penalty. 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 73 

In defining the ordinary sufferings of life 
as the "natural consequences of sin," the theo- 
logians are in error. It is not difficult to see 
that the eating of the forbidden fruit on the 
part of Adam could not cause the earth, as a 
natural consequence, to bring forth "thorns 
and thistles." A violation of the moral law 
could not so affect the physical world. But 
in view of the purpose of God in continuing the 
race in the consciousness of His love and favor, 
He transformed the character of universal na- 
ture. As the doom of the serpent was not a 
natural consequence of sin but by the direct 
word and power of God, so the curse of toil, 
pain, and death pronounced upon man did not 
arise naturally from his disobedience but came 
by the arbitrary pronouncement of Jehovah. 
Every tear or trial which I am called to suffer 
in infancy or age, proclaims the love of my 
heavenly Father. The sweat of toil, the pains 
of motherhood, the sorrows of infancy, the in- 
firmities of years, and the pangs of dissolution 
are a part of the so-called curse made possible 
by man's sin, found necessary for man's sake. 

The sense of guilt, the feeling of condemna- 
tion, and the fear of punishment are natural 
consequences of sin ; but they are no part of 
the curse pronounced after the fall and have 
no connection with the common ills of life, 
which none, whatever their goodness, can 



74 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

escape. The curse made proper by man's first 
sin, ushered in, under new conditions and laws 
no longer arbitrary as in the Garden of Eden, 
the present administration of God in this world. 
It was prompted by infinite wisdom and justice 
and love alike. When it shall have served its 
purpose, it shall pass away, as did the former, 
and ultimately the "new heavens and the new 
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness" shall ap- 
pear. But for the present the hostile forces 
in nature, the opposing wills of men and of 
devils, and all the sufferings which we experi- 
ence in common with each other are made to 
minister to our improvement and highest de- 
velopment. I 

Whatever the creeds may contain or the 
schools may impart, the poem teaches, as does 
the Bible, that God makes evil His own and His 
human creature's servant ; that the evil which 
He cannot overrule to His praise He restrains ; 
that evil is made to contribute to man's knowl- 
edge, strength, and hope; that it is made the 
occasion of the birth of modesty, genius, and 
the desire for the propagation of the race ; that 
it is made the basis of the highest type of char- 
acter and the loftiest expression of love ; and, 
above all, that it is made the occasion of the 
coming of our Lord — the sublimest possible 
manifestation and revelation of God to His 
universe. 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 75 

To confirm more fully our teaching, although 
truth when seen in its relations is so self-evi- 
dencing that it needs no oath and little argu- 
ment, your attention is called to a few con- 
siderations not contained in the poem. 

It is impossible for me to look upon God 
with any feeling of pity, or compassion, or 
commiseration, which your view would seem to 
make necessary. My nature demands a God 
who cannot be defeated or surprised or disap- 
pointed in the least degree. I could not wor- 
ship as God a being whose glory I could 
tarnish or the luster of whose universe I could 
diminish. My view of God compels me to be- 
lieve that His blessedness and glory, like His 
natural attributes and moral perfections, are 
infinite. 

I cannot believe that God would or could 
create a being able to thwart or countervail 
His will. Turn your eyes to the incomparable 
splendor of a midnight sky, — worlds upon 
worlds, planets and suns and systems and con- 
stellations and clusters, range upon range, 
some of them fixed centers of astonishing mag- 
nificence, others swinging in their orbits and 
revolving upon their axles, all of them moving 
with mathematical precision throughout the 
ages and symbolizing the glory of God who is 
the central Sun of all. Behold Him, in His 
triune capacity, counseling over one further 



76 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

and perhaps final creation and then couching 
His conclusion in the lofty words: "Let us 
make man in Our image, after Our likeness." 
His purpose in such a creation, evidently, was 
not to obscure His glory, but to enhance it. It 
was not to diminish the luster of His universe, 
but to give it a higher purpose and to extend 
the sphere of its appreciation. It ought to be 
inconceivable that God, who sees the end from 
the beginning, would create a being, who by 
the exercise of given powers could place an 
ineradicable "stain upon the great white 
throne." God's throne was never whiter than 
it is now. The disobedience of a child cannot 
tarnish the parental escutcheon. 

The history of Joseph is a most illuminating 
incident, illustrating God's overruling provi- 
dence. It was when Jacob was blinded by his 
tears that he said: "All these things are 
against me." There is not a fact or a feature 
in the story of Joseph that God has not caused 
to reveal His goodness and glory to a degree 
beyond what we can conceive as possible under 
other and happier circumstances. The world 
is richer for the grievous incident of that early 
day. Now if God could take the quarrel of 
a patriarchal family and use it in all the de- 
tails of its development for the enrichment of 
the race and the clearer revelation of Himself, 
could He not use the fall of Adam in all the 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 77 

details of its development for the good of the 
universe and the fuller manifestation of His 
glory? And if He could thus use it, He surely 
would do so. 

The Bible abundantly teaches that the world 
in its completed history must fulfill the purpose 
and pleasure of God in its creation. Even in 
his deepest sorrow Job was inspired to say of 
God: "But He is in one mind and who can 
turn Him? And what His soul desireth, even 
that he doeth." (Job 23:13.) 

The psalmist, contemplating the glory of 
God, declared : *'But our God is in the heavens ; 
He hath done whatsoever He pleased." (Psalm 
115:3.) 

Through the mouth of His prophet Isaiah, 
God says: "My word that goeth forth out 
of My mouth shall not return unto Me void, but 
it shall accomplish that which I please, and it 
shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." 
(Isaiah 55:10.) 

Nebuchadnezzar, after a most humiliating 
experience, his understanding having returned 
to him, worshiped the Most High, and ex- 
claimed: "He doeth according to His will in 
the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants 
of the earth, and none can stay His hand or 
say unto Him — what doest thou." (Daniel 
4:35.) 

The apostle Paul says: "For our citizen- 



78 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

ship is in Heaven from whence also we wait 
for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that 
it may be conformed to the body of His glory, 
according to the working whereby He is able 
to subject all things unto Himself." (Philip- 
pians 3:20, 21.) 

These and numerous other passages like them 
do not sound as if God were defeated by "the 
human choice of evil" or that its introduction 
into the world is an "irreparable calamity" or 
that "God's glory and the luster of His uni- 
verse are diminished" by the creature He has 
made, or that "He is compelled to be satisfied 
with a second-best world." 

My dear critic, called to preach the un- 
searchable riches of Christ, the view which you 
present does not honor God, and whatever fails 
to honor Him is false. The gospel which you 
are commissioned to proclaim lacks nothing; it 
makes a man whole ; it meets the world's need 
and meets it fully. Heaven will not be a state 
of "modified happiness." It will be as much 
superior to Eden and its possibilities as the 
heavens are higher than the earth, and man 
himself, in intellectual power and moral expan- 
sion, as much superior to man in Eden as a 
giant athlete is superior physically to one 
whose muscles are pulp and whose bones are 
gristle. 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 79 

There have been rebellion and war in Heaven, 
but God's will is accomplished there. The 
prayer which our Lord gave to His disciples 
declares it and that prayer is not impossible 
of fulfillment here. "Thy will be done on earth 
as it is in Heaven," is not given us to offer 
doubtfully but in faith. He who will not give 
His glory to another will not suffer it to be 
dimmed by another. Tragic, indeed, the com- 
ing of Christ and bloody His train, but in be- 
ing "wounded for our transgressions," God's 
glory did not suffer, for "by His stripes we are 
healed." 

In the joy of triumph over evil, in the bless- 
ings of a gracious overruling Providence, in the 
hope of a blissful immortality, and in the 
revelation of God's mercy in the face of Jesus 
Christ, whose suffering our salvation has 
made necessary, it is not unreasonable that we 
should bear some scars of our victorious con- 
flict. But our hurt, figuratively speaking, is 
the ache of a bruised heel compared with the 
joy of crushing the serpent's head. Moreover, 
our hurt is for a moment, while our felicity is 
eternal. Listen to Paul (2 Corinthians 4: 
8-18), "pressed on every side, yet not straight- 
ened ; perplexed, yet not unto despair ; pursued, 
yet not forsaken ; smitten down, yet not de- 
stroyed; always bearing about in the body the 
dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may 



80 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

be manifested in our body. . . . Wherefore we 
faint not, . . . for our light affliction, which 
is for the moment, worketh for us more and 
more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory. ^^ 

Brother, I submit that what you condemn 
in my poem Paul seems to commend. As be- 
tween the somber colors of your plaint and the 
rainbow hues of Paul's picture, I cannot hesi- 
tate to choose. 

I conclude this defense with the observation 
that the curse contained the first promise of 
the Savior. Therefore, I continue to sing: 

"Slight is the hurt, the blessing great, 
Of all who toil beneath the curse. 
Which shines so gemmed with promise bright 
It gilds with hope the universe." 

15. "Ot* reading your lines: 

'If all were right and nothing wrong. 
The softest heart would turn to stone* 

I thought, if they are true, what a stony- 
hearted place hea'ven must he, and what a stony- 
hearted being God must he.'* — s. j. m. 

If I were to say that occasion is everything 
in love, while you would know that it is not 
strictly correct, still you would not dispute it. 
Occasion does not change one's nature, nor 
does it create the capacity for loving, but it is 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 81 

so related to love's expression that without it 
love has little value. So of my lines, — while 
not literally, they are poetically true. 

If we have the faculty of love we must have 
the objects of love. If in pity, compassion, 
and sacrifice, love finds its highest expressions, 
then there is required those things or condi- 
tions that call forth pity, compassion and sac- 
rifice. It follows, therefore, that our first 
parents could neither have known nor developed 
love in its highest forms in Eden. 

And what shall we say of God in this con- 
nection? From a part we know the whole; 
from the finite we get a conception of the in- 
finite; to know God we study ourselves, made 
in His image and likeness. As He is love in 
the dominating quality of His character, it is 
the demand of His nature that there shall be 
beings to love, and He creates them. They, 
being "flesh," assaulted by temptation ; "earth- 
ern vessels," frail, brittle, perishable, easily 
shattered, furnish the occasion for that highest 
demand of His nature — the infinite compassion, 
the infinite sacrifice, the gift of His only be- 
gotten Son. 

The tendency and general effect of trouble 
is to soften the heart. The first serious illness 
of my eldest child at the age of eight years, 
was the occasion of the revelation, not only to 
him but to myself, of how much I loved him. 



82 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

How impressive the refrain in the 107th Psalm, 
"Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble 
and He delivered them out of their distresses." 
Trouble does soften the heart. That is the 
rule. Now and then we seem to find an excep- 
tion. Apparently Job's wife was one. That 
which should have softened her heart seems to 
have hardened it. If she had been what a wife 
always should be, Job would have found large 
compensation for his suffering in the richer dis- 
plays of her love, and he would have said to 
her : "My dear, I had no reason to doubt your 
love in the years of our prosperity, but your 
heart was a stone then compared to what I have 
found it in this period of my sorrow; you have 
been touched with the feeling of my infirmities." 
All that my poem says about the occasions or 
means of softening the heart may be true and 
heaven not be a stony-hearted place, for heaven 
is cognizant of earth, and its inhabitants are 
those who have witnessed, experienced, and re- 
lieved poverty, weakness, and loneliness. It 
occurred to me that my line, "The softest heart 
would turn to stone," might be too strong, but 
remembering that God, in speaking to His 
prophet Ezekiel (25:^6) in deliberate prose 
called the heart "stony," I concluded that in 
poetry it might be called, relatively and meta- 
phorically, under certain conditions, stone. 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 83 

I do not teach that a life of righteousness 
hardens the heart, but that the tears of sorrow 
soften it and awaken within it tenderness, sym- 
pathy, benevolence, compassion, pity, and sac- 
rifice, — love in its highest possible expressions. 

16. "Is it true that, 

'We dare not choose, we do not know, 
What cup to drink, what voice believe^'" 

— s. J. M. 

In 2 Corinthians 11:13, 14, Paul speaks of 
"false apostles, deceitful workers, 'fashioning 
themselves into apostles of Christ ; and no mar- 
vel, for even Satan fashioneth himself into an 
angel of light." "Devils soonest tempt, re- 
sembling spirits of light." So much for the 
uncertain voice. 

Now, how about the cup? We have drank 
some cups (some experiences) that we have 
taken most reluctantly, simply because we had 
to take them, and afterwards have thanked 
God for them. On the other hand, we have 
found that the most coveted potions ever 
pressed to human lips have proved only a sweet 
poison whose effects have filled the future with 
regret. 

The popular feeling on this point I think is 
expressed in the following fugitive lines; 



84 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

"It ain't so far from right to wrong, the trail ain't 

so hard to lose; 
There's times I'd almost give my horse to know 

which one to choose; 
There ain't no signboards on the road to keep you 

on the track. 
Wrong's sometimes white as driven snow and right 

looks awful black. 

"I don't set up to be no judge of right and wrong 

in men, 
I've lost the trail sometimes myself — I may get 

lost again; 
And if I see some chap who looks as though he'd 

gone astray, 
I want to shove my hand in his an' help him find 

the way." 

17. "/* it likely that there would he the ab- 
sence of samples of repentant angels if God 
provided for their salvation?^' — j. w. a. 

That angels, more or less of them, have fallen 
from their original pure estate and that God 
has left them in hopeless revolt is the almost 
universal belief of Christendom. This belief 
is never opposed and is seldom questioned. 
Such general agreement in a matter of so much 
importance should have a solid foundation. 
But has it any basis either in revelation or rea- 
son.? 

It is well to remember that the Bible was not 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 85 

written for angels but for men, and is largely 
limited in its teaching to what most vitally con- 
cerns men. Therefore, samples of repentant 
angels or full and explicit statements concern- 
ing their redemption or repentance, would not 
be expected. 

We may argue, however, redemption for an- 
gels from various considerations. First, from 
the fact that there is no conceivable advantage 
in their not being redeemed. Second, the view 
that God provided for the pardon and salvation 
of angels honors Him in the highest degree, and 
whatever honors God most is most likely to be 
true. Third, from the nature of God, revealed 
as delighting in mercy. Would He be likely to 
miss what would seem to be the best of all op- 
portunities for displaying it.? 

Fourth, from the fact that He showed 
His mercy to man with a promptness which 
amounted to haste, which was in perfect har- 
mony with His mercy-loving character. 

Fifth, from His impartiality. His ways are 
represented as being equal. Angels and men 
being equally His creatures : why should He be 
supposed to pass by one and save the other? 
If partiality be a blemish in the character of 
an earthly parent, can it be a virtue in our 
Heavenly Father? 

Sixth, from the fact that as finite beings, un- 
able to see the full import of their acts or to 



86 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

weigh the consequences of disobedience, angels 
deserved mercy to the extent to which their lim- 
itations might plead. 

Seventh, from the absence of any reason why 
"the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world" could not save them. I would not like 
to doubt God's ability to redeem them, and 
conceding His ability, I could not doubt His 
willingness to do so. 

Eighth, from the fact that the angels are 
"ministering spirits," rendering to each of us 
a tender and helpful service. (Hebrews 1:14.) 
May not the basis of this sympathetic relation 
be found in the fact that they have sinned, suf- 
fered, and been saved themselves? 

Ninth, from the consideration shown to fallen 
angels, especially the chief of them, who had 
access to heaven and met with the "sons of 
God" on more than one occasion. His presence 
there was not rebuked. Indeed, God honored 
him with conversations upon a very important 
topic and indulged him in a way that was very 
painful to Job, involving the loss of his prop- 
erty, the death of his children, the reproach of 
his friends, and the keenest bodily suffering. 
It may be that God did not welcome him, but 
He permitted his approach, heard his charge 
and challenge, let down the bars of the hedge 
about Job \( which Satan never could break 
through), and as the sequel shows, used him to 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 87 

the advantage of sufferers to the end of time. 
Tenth, from the words of Jesus (St. John 10: 
16), "And other sheep I have which are not of 
this fold; them also I must bring, and they 
shall hear my voice; and they shall become one 
flock, one shepherd." The Church has never 
found Christ's "other sheep." Oh, yes, her 
preachers and teachers have claimed to find 
them and have said, as if there could be no doubt 
about it, that Christ was addressing Jewish 
converts and that the other sheep were Gentiles. 
They forget that St. Paul says (1 Corinthians 
12:16), "In one spirit were we all baptized into 
one body, whether Jews or Greeks', whether 
bond or free." They forget, also, that with 
reference to believers in their relation to Christ 
Paul says (Colossians 3:11), "There cannot be 
Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircurnci- 
sion, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman." 
Christ does not regard our outward distinc- 
tions, and to say that He referred to the Gentile 
world as His other sheep who should hear His 
voice would be no more true than to say that 
He referred to the as yet uncalled and uncon- 
verted Jews. As sheep all these human classes 
belong to this fold. Still He has "other ^heep 
which are not of this fold." Who are they if 
they are not the fallen, yet redeemed, angels.'' 
This interpretation gives significance to one of 
the most beautiful portions of the teaching of 



88 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

our Lord, rendered unworthy of Him and so 
worse than meaningless through the error that 
God passed by the angels to redeem man. That 
man, as is often claimed, will be able to touch 
a higher note in the heavenly song than angels 
can ever reach is altogether fanciful. Angels 
and men will sing the same song in sweet ac- 
cord. 

Eleventh, from Revelation 12:7-12: "And 
there was war in heaven ; Michael and his angels 
going forth to war with the dragon; and the 
dragon warred and his angels, and they pre- 
vailed not, neither was their place found any 
more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast 
down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil 
and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; 
he was cast down to the earth, and his angels 
were cast down with him. And I heard a great 
voice in heaven saying. Now is come (in heaven) 
the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom 
of our God, and the authority of His Christ ; 
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down 
which accuseth (hath accused) them before our 
God day and night. And they overcame him 
because of the blood of the Lamb, and because 
of the word of their testimony; and they loved 
their lives not — even unto death. Therefore 
rejoice, O heavens, and ye that dwell in them. 
(But) Woe for the earth and for the sea, be- 
cause the Devil is gone down unto you, having 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 89 

great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short 
time." 

There is nothing figurative in this language, 
nothing difficult to understand. No historical 
statement could be plainer or more definite. It 
is obscure only when seen through the mists of 
prejudice or misconception. If the victorious 
angels in heaven overcame Satan because of the 
blood of the Lamb and the word of their testi- 
mony, then it follows that they overcame there, 
as we do here, and sustain the same relation to 
the Redeemer which we hold, belonging, as we 
do, to His redeemed flock. 

It is evident that the greater portion of the 
angels, if not all of them, who fought against 
the dragon had known sin, had been redeemed 
by the sacrificial suffering of the Son of God, 
and by faith shown by faithfulness had accepted 
that sacrifice to their salvation ; otherwise how 
could it be said of them as a whole that they 
overcame because of the blood of the Lamb and 
because of the word of their testimony.'' 
Throughout the universe, and forever, the con- 
ditions of salvation are the same and unalter- 
able. 

Twelfth, from the words of St. Paul (Ephe- 
sians, 3:14, 15), "For this cause I bow my 
knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 
of whom the whole (every) family in heaven 
and earth is named." No one can reasonably 



90 , THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

deny that this passage may be given an inter- 
pretation consistent with the theory of angelic 
redemption. How beautiful the thought that 
every morally accountable creature in God's 
universe belongs to God's family, full provision 
having been made for all the members to form 
one household of faith, united in fellowship and 
called after one name. 

Thirteenth, from various passages of Scrip- 
ture, found especially in the Revelation of St. 
John the Divine, by means of which we are per- 
mitted to look as through windows into the 
completed fold and to' see of whom it is 
composed. We find there the Savior and the 
saved, men and angels engaged without a dis- 
cordant note in the same worship, the redeemed 
giving ascriptions of praise to the Redeemer. 

We do not wish to deny that the unfallen 
angels, if there are such, may be forever asso- 
ciated with the redeemed as Christ Himself 
is associated with them. They could be in- 
cluded provisionally in the redemption of fallen 
angels, as the later provision of mercy to men 
extends to the unborn and to infants. 

It may be thought by some that this subject 
has no importance to us that is either essen- 
tial or practical. But is it nothing to know 
that Christ died not only for me, but for sin- 
ners everywhere.? Is it nothing to be able to 
interpret consistently portions of Scripture 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 91 

generally considered difficult to understand? 
Is it nothing to honor God in the highest de- 
gree possible to our conception? Is it noth- 
ing that in Christ angels and men are united 
by the strongest of all bonds in one vast and 
precious brotherhood? Indeed, the subject is 
invested with the highest interests of the king- 
dom of God — its complete triumph among 
men, angels, and moral beings everywhere, its 
infinite and everlasting glory in every portion 
of God's boundless universe. 

18^ ^"Does not the fact of life being under 
law imply probation?'' — j. c. 

Yes, in the sense of trying, testing, and prov- 
ing ; in its application to novitiates ; as we see it 
in Church, state, school and home; and, in 
some measure, in connection with the divine ad- 
ministration. Being under law implies proba- 
tions rather than probation. 

It is the theological probation — the one, 
single, temporal, all-determining probation as 
taught by the Church — that I regard as a 
myth. By "life forever under law" I mean 
that man (and all other moral creatures) will 
be forever under God's moral discipline or 
government. That government implies a Su- 
preme Lawgiver, capable subjects, and perfect 
law. The subjects must have understanding, 
conscience, and free will. The law, to be per- 



92 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

feet, must be appropriate, intelligible, and 
present influencing motives. These elements 
are essential to God's moral administration, 
and where any one of them is lacking there 
cannot be ideal moral government. Young 
children, idiots, and lunatics, not having the 
understanding to perceive the rule of con- 
duct or the conscience to feel its obligations, 
are not able to obey it and, therefore, are not 
its subjects. Now if beyond the grave there 
is to be a continuation of moral government, 
it must retain its essential elements, carrying 
there, as it does here, hope and opportunity to 
its subjects. i 

I have been taught from my boyhood that 
the offer of divine grace is limited to this life ; 
that here is my only day of trial; that my 
choice in this single stage — this brief moment 
of my existence — is final and must determine 
my eternal destiny for weal or woe ; that a 
failure now is a failure without remedy or 
relief forever. The theological probation ter- 
minates at, often before, death, when if I have 
not chosen wisely, however brief may have 
been the period of my accoujitability^ irre- 
spective of my temperament, environment, or 
faulty training, the law under which I live 
and by virtue of which I have hope will exe- 
cute its irrevocable sentence, cutting me off 
forever from all possibility of virtue or hope 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 93 

of benefit to be derived from the clear view 
of truth which shall come when the veil of 
the flesh and the present accidents of my being 
are taken away. 

From such teaching my soul revolts. I be- 
lieve that it contradicts reason, lacks the con- 
firmation of Scripture, and libels the character 
of God. As an accountable being, I am under 
a beneficent moral government, having hopeful 
opportunity. This is true of me here. Moral 
being, moral government, hopeful opportunity, 
are logically related. Now is there any evi- 
dence that I shall not be a moral being under 
moral government in the world to come? Then 
there, as here, opportunity must complete the 
trinity. If I am to remain forever under law, 
it follows as the shadow follows the substance 
that I must be able to keep that law — let us 
hope better there than here, being free, per- 
haps, from bodily infirmities and prejudicial 
conditions. 

So far as we know, there is nothing in death 
than can destroy or change any faculty of the 
soul. It loses nothing, either in its character 
or powers, in its passage through the portals 
into the beyond. It is true of the soul's cas- 
ket, and true of only that part of us, that 
"there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, 
nor wisdom in the grave." The eye loses its 
vision, the foot its swiftness, and the hand 



94 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

its cunning. Any other or more extended 
application of this text is a perversion of its 
meaning. The soul retains its knowledge, its 
activities, its intellectual and moral percep- 
tions, its moral sense, and its powers of im- 
provement and progress. The fact of life be- 
ing forever under law implies, not probation 
as theologically understood, but eternal hope 
and boundless privilege. 

But I am told that eternal hope is impossi- 
ble; that hope is founded on reasonable expec- 
tation of fulfillment; that if it is impossible to 
realize the thing looked for, it is not hope, 
and if it is realized, it is then no longer hope 
but reality. Well, all this may be true of 
commodities, but not of character. You may 
have your fill of money but not of morals. 
Hope is a faculty of the living soul, as inde- 
structible as the soul itself. While it con- 
stantly realizes, it continually anticipates the 
perfection which, being infinite, can never be 
compassed. 

Do you say that our first parents in Eden 
were under law and yet on probation? True, 
they were under law and on such a probation 
as I have admitted, but not such as I have 
described as the theological probation. They 
might eat of all the trees in the garden ex- 
cept one ; partaking of that, they should surely 
die. To vindicate His law God sent His Son 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 95 

in their humanity and He died that they might 
not die. Their existence was continued, and 
driven out of Eden, they were not deprived 
of hope and promise and possibility. 

19. "/ cannot get away from the thought 
that if Adam's fall was upward and forward, 
then every transgression of God's command 
must in its nature be the same.'" — p. a. c. 

"If 'from evil gain,' it is not best to be al- 
ways good. Too good? If, on the whole, it 
was better for Adam to disobey than to obey, 
why not for us all?" — jr. w. a. 

Either I have carelessly written my poem 
or my critics have not carefully read it. 

Adam's disobedience was not in itself a 
blessing. No disobedience of God's command 
can be "in its nature" upward or forward. 
Sin in the abstract is always friendless. But 
better than Adam is Christ, and conformity 
to His likeness is the loftiest character. The 
righteousness which is of faith transcends the 
righteousness which is of the law. The reve- 
lation of hope in Christ and of heirship with 
Christ and of the immortality brought to light 
in the gospel are more than the law of works 
could ever reveal. And these are ours be- 
cause God made man's sin the occasion of 
their provision. 



96 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

I teach no more than Paul, nor differently 
from him, when he says (Romans 5:20), 
"Where sin abounded grace did abound more 
exceedingly" ; and the conclusion which he 
draws is the very opposite of that which my 
critics seem to think is logical. "Shall we 
continue in sin, therefore, that grace may 
abound? God forbid." (Romans 6:1.) 

20. ^^The closkig verses of your poem are 
very agreeable, presenting as they do the com- 
plete victory of good over evil. But does that 
victory signify the actual salvation of every 
moral being in God's universe? I hope it does. 
While I am not inclined to oppose the pleasing 
view, I am not able, at present, to adopt it." 

G. T. 

My brother, fully appreciating your deli- 
cately expressed criticism, your superior 
scholarship, and the modesty characteristic of 
scholarship, I will state some of the reasons 
why I firmly believe in the ultimate destruction 
of all evil by the complete subjection of all 
evildoers. 

This is the only way of ending evil in God's 
universe, except by annihilation, which has no 
foundation either in science or revelation. It 
is not by the subjugation of evil doers (as is 
often taught), which leaves evil, though in- 
active, still existing, but by their subjection. 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 97 

Complete subjection is in the Bible; forcible 
subjugation is not there. There is a broad dis- 
tinction between "subjection" as the term is 
used in the Scripture, and "subjugation" as 
we understand it. The subjected are so wil- 
lingly; the subjugated are so unwillingly. 
The subjected are so by their full consent; 
the subjugated are so against their consent. 
The subjected are voluntarily submissive; the 
subjugated are sullenly rebellious. God 
brings moral creatures into glorious subjection 
to Him ; He does not eternally subjugate 
them. He does not conquer by the exercise 
of superior force. He has servants, but no 
slaves. He has victors through Him, but no 
victims under Him. Eloquent as the thought 
may seem to be, God never puts His foot on 
the neck of an evildoer as a giant might sup- 
press a weak and fallen foe. God subjects 
His enemies by instruction, discipline, train- 
ing, influence, persuasion, constraint, and 
restraint. He "destroys" His enemies by 
causing them, through the use of these means, 
without coercion, to put away their enmity 
and become His friends. 

Hell, no less than heaven, is a moral neces- 
sity. Virtue and vice must produce their 
logical results. These results are not arbi- 
trary, but consequential. Men suffer hell 
here, and they will suffer it hereafter. Men 



98 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

enjoy heaven here and they will enjoy it here- 
after. Harmony with God brings bliss. Op- 
position to God brings woe. This is true here 
and will be in all worlds. Heaven and hell, 
therefore, are not so much localities as condi- 
tions, though they may be spoken of as we 
speak of places. God's law is a stern reality 
and it is the demand of a righteous moral gov- 
ernment that its sanctions shall be executed. 

But does a righteous administration de- 
mand the endless and hopeless torment of the 
sinner dying in his sins, with no possibility 
of repentance and pardon beyond the grave? 
As the curse which was pronounced upon man 
after his fall was not an expression of God's 
vindictiveness, but for man's sake, so is ev- 
erything that is related to the curse. It 
follows that temptation, trial, suffering, pun- 
ishment, and hell are all elements in God's re- 
demptive plan. Each has a lofty purpose — 
a purpose worthy of our God. 

God uses means for the salvation of the sin- 
ner here ; may He not use means for the same 
end hereafter? Punishment, or chastisement, 
is used as a means of salvation in this age ; may 
it not be used for the same purpose in some 
other age or ages? In the administration of 
an infinitely good Being punishment cannot be 
vengeful; it must be beneficent. If the law of 
God is given for the moral creature's good 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 99 

("the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to 
Christ"), then its penalty cannot defeat its ob- 
ject, which it would do if punishment were end- 
less and hopeless. 

Those who hold that the wicked who leave this 
world unforgiven will be subjected to pro- 
nounced endless torture declare that "sin is an 
infinite evil." But how can an infinite quality 
belong to a finite act done by a finite being.? 
The Commentator Barnes, in his notes on Job, 
2^:15, says: "There is no intelligible sense in 
which it can be said that sin is an infinite evil." 

It is said frequently that the sinner becomes 
fixed in sin and incapable of repentance, even 
though otherwise repentance were possible. The 
fact and force of habit are admitted, but that 
any habit of the will can become fixed in this 
embryo life is an assumption without proof; in- 
deed, it is preposterous. Those who discourse 
on the fixedness of character here as determin- 
ing unalterable moral destiny hereafter should 
remember that even in Christian countries one 
third of the people die before they have passed 
far into a state of moral accountability, when 
there can be no possibility of a fixed habit of 
any kind. 

Every man who goes out of this world, to 
whatever place or condition, carries with him 
all the faculties which he possesses here. He 
will have his will, which will be free. He will 



100 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

retain his powers of faith and hope and love. 
Annihilate any one of these faculties or render 
any one inoperative by taking away its objects, 
and a different being is punished there from the 
one that sinned here. 

Admit that this little province of God's 
boundless empire is in revolt ; that it is "the 
place of Satan's seat" ; it is plainly seen that 
God does not abandon and leave it in the hands 
of a usurper. It is His world still, and to re- 
deem it He has given the costliest ransom of 
which He was capable. Does not this infinite 
outlay demand a complete recovery? The sac- 
rifice must be justified by the end achieved. 
Moreover, if God, having done His best, fails, 
it will be because He has undertaken a task for 
which He is not equal or that there is a task 
not undertaken because beyond His ability. 
Neither horn of this dilemma could I possibly 
accept. 

If death ends hope ; if this life is a probation 
which terminates with our mortal breath; if 
the moral law, carrying with it the opportunity 
of obeying it and the hope of its rewards, con- 
tinues not beyond the grave, then there is no 
escaping the conclusion that God's ways are 
not equal and that His effort to saVe men is a 
dismal failure. We see the strong oppressing 
the weak; some reveling in luxury all their 
days, others living and dying in abject pov- 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 101 

erty; some scarcely ever knowing pain, others 
enduring lifelong suffering; some mentally en- 
dowed to read the rocks or harness the light- 
ning or tell the distances of the stars, others to 
whose simple and feeble minds come no visions 
of beauty, no revelations of worth, no pleasing 
fancies, no gleams of hope ; some born and 
reared amid delightful surroundings, blessed 
with freedom and nature and music and art, 
others existing in obscurity, pining in darkness, 
chained in dungeons — crawling, shrinking, 
shriveling things, a part of the putrefaction 
in which they lie and more wretched than the 
vermin by which they are slowly consumed. If 
this be the end or, worse still, the prelude to a 
deeper gloom, God cannot be acquitted of par- 
tiality. 

Go into the slums of our large cities and see 
the multitudes who are born with the single 
talent of mere existence, with little of hope and 
less of opportunity. Their home is a dingy 
basement or a suffocating attic. They know 
nothing of the being and goodness of God. 
They never hear hymn or sermon or prayer. 
Their employment is in cellars and tubes and 
tunnels and mines. They seldom see clear sun- 
light and rarely breathe pure air. Their en- 
vironment is their shroud. Their substance, 
their very existence, is given to those who al- 
ready have ten talents. Bound hand and foot. 



102 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

they are in outer darkness, and their self-ut- 
tered dirge, unheard, or heard indifferently by 
the rich and powerful, is weeping and wailing 
and gnashing of teeth. Millions on millions of 
our race have lived and died under such or 
worse conditions. There is no salvation ex- 
cept by "repentance toward God and faith in 
our Lord Jesus Christ," yet millions have died 
who never heard of Christ as a Savior. Must 
not the conditions of salvation be made known 
to them, some time, somewhere, with the privi- 
lege of accepting them.^ They yet live. 
Where are they? What is their condition.'' 
Are they given knowledge and yet denied hope 
and opportunity .f^ What shall be their des- 
tiny.'^ Truly, "if in this life only we have hope 
in Christ, we are of all creatures the most mis- 
erable." 

But this earth life of ours is only a punctu- 
ation point of a sentence of a paragraph of a 
page of a chapter of a volume of a series in the 
limitless sphere of our existence. God's moral 
administration must continue. Hope must sur- 
vive the grave. The inequalities of the present 
must be explained and righted if mercy and 
justice are the foundation of God's throne. 

Why God suffered John to be beheaded and 
Stephen stoned and Cranmer burned while 
faithfully engaged in His service, and their 
murderers to be applauded and honored, will 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 103 

yet be fully understood and approved. Why 
Paul — when he was Saul of Tarsus and while he 
was yet breathing out threatenings and slaugh- 
ter against the humble followers of our Lord, 
nor sought nor wished additional or different 
light — was favored with a manifestation of the 
Savior approaching the glory of His appear- 
ing which we shall behold beyond the grave, but 
as yet denied to all others will be fully ex- 
plained and justified. God does not deal with 
His children unjustly. He uses men as He 
does events, subordinating all to the advance- 
ment of His kingdom and the revelation of 
Himself. The working out of God's plans are 
begun but not completed here. "What I do 
thou knowest not now; but thou shalt under- 
stand hereafter." (St. John 13:7.) 

The angel flying in the midst of heaven, hav- 
ing the ''eternal gospeV to proclaim, does not 
at once preach it to all men everywhere. Cen- 
turies have passed and yet there are portions 
of the earth still dark and full of the habita- 
tions of cruelty. Shall the generations that 
have gone out from the darkness untaught 
never hear the "eternal gospel," never see the 
heavenly light, never taste celestial bliss .^ 

It will not be because God is too good or be- 
cause He loves His creatures too well to see 
them lost forever that they will be finally 
saved, but because some time, somewhere, they 



104 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

will meet the conditions of salvation which His 
wisdom and justice and love impose. The final 
choice of every moral being in the universe, 
I believe, will be for God and righteousness. 

When I find two classes of texts that seem 
to teach directly opposite doctrines, only one 
of which can be true, I adopt the class whose 
teaching appears so reasonable that it ought 
to be true, that is least likely to be the result 
of human bias or interpolation, and that has 
the strongest Scripture supports. I then try 
to find an interpretation of the other class that 
shall transform apparent antagonism into act- 
ual consistency. Such an interpretation can 
be given, but this reply will deal only with texts 
of the former class. 

Isaiah (53:11), clearly beholding the hu- 
miliation and exaltation of Christ, declares: 
"He shall see of the travail of His soul and 
shall be satisfied." Would He be satisfied in 
saving only a few.? Would He be satisfied if 
one sinner for whose salvation He had suffered 
were eternally lost.? Much less would He be 
satisfied if the vast majority of those whose 
redemption He had purchased with His blood 
were to plunge into a hopeless hell, as May- 
flies into flame. 

God Himself, in Isaiah 45:22, 23, says: 
"Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of 
the earth, for I am God and there is none else. 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 105 

By Myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth 
in righteousness and shall not return, that 
unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue 
shall swear." What virtue in homage ren- 
dered, or victory in homage secured, if it is not 
given voluntarily? What shall every one 
swear to God if not allegiance? By that oath 
all become citizens of the kingdom of heaven, 
loyal subjects of the King of kings. Some 
time, before death or afterward; somewhere, 
this side of the grave or beyond it, God's word 
sworn by Himself must be fulfilled. 

The apostle Paul (Romans 14:11), quotes 
Isaiah 45:23 almost verbatim: "As I live, 
saith the Lord, to Me every knee shall bow, and 
every tongue shall confess to God." And we 
are not left in any doubt as to the character 
of the worship which is here declared, for Paul, 
in his Epistle to the Philippians (2:9, 10, 11), 
quotes with some elaboration the same facts: 
"Wherefore, also, God highly exalted Him and 
gave Him the name which is above every name, 
that in the name of Jesus every hnee should 
how, of things in heaven, and things on the 
earth, and things under the earth, and that 
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." We 
submit that to bow in the name of Jesus and 
to confess Christ to the glory of God, means 
not coerced but voluntary surrender. 



106 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

In 1 Corinthians 15:21-28 we read: "For 
since by man came death, by man came also the 
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all 
die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 
But each in his own order; Christ the first- 
fruits ; then they that are Christ's at His 
coming. (When that shall be we have not been 
told.) Then cometh the end (not the end of 
all things, but the end of Christ's mediatorial 
reign), when He shall deliver up the king- 
dom to God, even the Father, when He shall 
have abolished all (opposing) rule and all 
(antagonistic) authority and power. For He 
must reign until He hath put all His enemies 
under His feet. (Not in the sense of subju- 
gating but of subjecting them.) The last 
enemy (last because He can use it longest) that 
shall be abolished (because impersonal) is death. 
For He hath put all things in (voluntary) 
subjection under His feet; but when He saith. 
All things are put in subjection, it is evident 
that He is excepted who did subject all things 
unto Him. And when all things have been sub- 
jected unto Him, then shall the Son also Him- 
self be subjected to Him that did subject all 
things unto Him, that God may be All in all.'* 
Observe that the Son is subjected to the Father. 
He must become so voluntarily or willingly. 
Christ's enemies are subjected to Him. Their 
subjection must be of the same kind and in the 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 107 

same voluntary or willing manner, for the word 
"subjected" is used in each case, the same word 
not only in our translation but in the original 
Greek. With the sinner means are used, but 
they produce loving surrender. All the sev- 
erity which so many see in Christ's putting 
His enemies under His feet disappears before 
this simple and plain interpretation. What 
has Christ been doing in the past.^^ He has 
been putting His enemies under His feet; that 
is, bringing them into willing subjection to 
Himself. What is Christ doing now.? He is 
putting His enemies under His feet, bringing 
them into willing subjection to Himself. And 
He will continue this work, as He has hitherto 
prosecuted it, not by force, but by the word 
of truth, the influence of the Spirit, the con- 
straint of love, the ministry of evil, the exercise 
of moral government, and by the revelation of 
Himself, until every enemy shall be brought 
into voluntary subjection to His will except 
death, which shall be destroyed when, perfectly 
satisfied with the travail of His soul. He shall 
deliver up the kingdom to the Father that God 
may be All in all. Then, and not till then, 
when His triumph is complete, will His media- 
torial reign cease. 

We call attention to 1 Peter 3 :18, 19, which 
reads: "Because Christ also suff*ered for sins 
once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that 



108 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

He might bring us to God, being put to 
death in the flesh but quickened in the spirit, 
in which also He went and preached unto the 
spirits in prison; which aforetime were dis- 
obedient, when the long suffering of God 
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark 
was a preparing." Prejudice and precon- 
ceived opinions often give to some portions 
of God's word a forced and inconsistent inter- 
pretation. The passage under consideration 
seems to be one of them, although it contains 
nothing abstruse or difficult. Its statements 
are plain, simple, and direct. Why should we 
teach as its meaning, that at the time when 
Noah was preaching to the ear of the antedilu- 
vians, Christ in spirit was preaching to their 
spirits, which are now in prison? Yet this ab- 
surd interpretation is the one that generally 
obtains. Is not the plain meaning of the pass- 
age this — that Christ, between His death and 
resurrection went in spirit to the place of the 
departed spirits of the antediluvians, disobedi- 
ent in the days of Noah, and preached to them 
salvation? He could tell them of the fulfill- 
ment of the promise and of His finished sacri- 
fice on Calvary for the conditional salvation of 
the whole world. What haste He manifested. 
He did not wait even for His resurrection to 
inform those souls of their glorious privilege. 
Let us have the true meaning of God's word. 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 109 

even if it shatters our creeds and confirms the 
idea held by Alford and others of "a day of 
grace in Hades." A day of grace should be 
welcome anywhere, and if it can end, that fact 
should be the saddest in all the realm of truth. 
As the Bible, however, is given us for this life, it 
does not emphasize the possibilities of the fu- 
ture life. All its emphasis is placed most 
properly on the present — not present life, but 
the present moment. "Behold now (not to- 
morrow or next year) is the accepted time ; be- 
hold now is the day of salvation." Yet some 
will wait, and come and find to-morrow, when 
the morrow becomes the now. But delay means 
difficulty, if not doom ; loss, if not to be lost. 
If it be said that the preaching to the "spirits 
in prison" proves nothing concerning an offer 
of grace to the dead in general, we point to 
another statement of Peter (I Peter 4:6) that 
is not limited and does not exclude the idea of 
totality. "For unto this end was the gospel 
preached even to the dead, that they might be 
judged according to men in the flesh, but live 
according to God in the spirit." This passage 
has been the despair of theologians obsessed 
with the idea that there is no off^er of grace 
beyond the narrow boundary of this present 
life. Surely it seems to be obvious that only 
the preaching of the gospel beyond the grave 
can compensate the defects and inequalities of 



110 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

the present or give to God's judgment of man- 
kind the character of equality and righteous- 
ness. 

Consider 1 John 3 :2, "Beloved, now are we 
children of God, and it is not yet made mani- 
fest what we shall be. We know that if He 
shall be manifested, we shall be like Him, for 
we shall see Him as He is." 

We are all children of God by creation, 
preservation, and redemption. The Israelites, 
turning to idols, were backsliding children. 
The prodigal of the parable was a prodigal 
so?i. Therefore when John says: "Now are we 
children of God," we think that he meant, or 
might have meant, whether churched or un- 
churched, baptized or not, believers or infidels. 
When, continuing, he says : "And it is not yet 
made manifest what we shall be," we think that 
those words may be equally true of all classes. 
He admits that to believers, at least, there will 
come a change in the moral character, if not 
in moral relation, beyond the grave. If a 
change can occur in believers after death, why 
not in unbelievers, at least to the extent of their 
becoming believers, and, if so, of entitling them 
to all the benefits to which believers are eligible. 

The difference in men here in, respect to 
moral character is only in degree. The best 
are not altogether good and the worst are not 
altogether bad. If the best, being imperfect, 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 111 

need and will have a true and transforming 
view of the Savior, why should such a vision 
be denied to those who need it most? Would 
there be such varying types of moral character 
among believers if all saw Christ with equal 
clearness? Would not the number of believers 
be very largely increased if all men saw Christ 
with the clearness with which some behold Him? 
For example, would not the vision which was 
given to Saul of Tarsus produce a similar effect 
in others to that which was produced in him? 
Indeed, was it not the most sublime purpose of 
that heavenly vision, to which Saul was not 
disobedient and to which probably no man so 
favored would be disobedient, to emphasize the 
truth that all men will be like Christ when they 
come to really and truly behold Him? 

When John says: "We know that if He 
shall be manifested, we shall be like Him, for 
we shall see Him as He is," I can find no reason 
for limiting it to a mere fraction of those of 
whom Christ is "not willing that any should 
perish, but that all should come unto Him and 
live." If when Christ shall be manifested, one 
class shall see Him as He is, shall not the other 
class, also, see Him as He is? If that revela- 
tion and vision shall make one imperfect class 
perfect, may it not have the same effect on the 
other imperfect class? 

Millions upon millions of our race have lived 



112 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

and died without ever having seen or even heard 
of Christ. Thej must see Him, — every eye 
shall see Him, even they who pierced Him, — 
and shall their vision of Him who gave Him- 
self a ransom for all be without efPect? 

Isaiah says (45:24), "And all that are in- 
censed against Him shall be ashamed." That 
shame implies the desire for Christ's likeness. 
No moral change can come to any man, here 
or hereafter, against his volition. Those who 
are now incensed against Him shall long to be 
like Him when they shall see Him in the fullness 
of His splendor. When Christ shall appear 
we — all of us, without distinction — shall see 
Him as He is ; we shall behold the King in His 
beauty, and that beauty shall astonish and at- 
tract us ; it shall transfix our gaze and trans- 
form our soul. 

For full confirmation of this view read the 
110th Psalm, whjich surely includes Chri&t's 
enemies and contains the clear notes of Mes- 
sianic triumph. "Ruling in the midst of His 
enemies, Christ shall stretch forth the rod of 
His strength and they shall become His foot- 
stool, offering themselves willingly in the 
beauties of holiness, in the day of His power." 
All days are days of Christ's power, but that 
will be the day of His power when, according 
to John, He shall be clearly manifested. Then 
all shall become willingly His footstool, offering 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 113 

themselves in the beauty of unreserved surren- 
der. They shall be like Him, for beholding 
His glory, not as now through a glass darkly, 
but clearly, face to face, they shall be changed 
into ever ascending degrees of glory by the 
still operative law of assimilation and the trans- 
forming energy of the Almighty Spirit. 

And Satan, also, is to be manifested. "The 
man of sin to be revealed" (2 Thessalonians 
2:3) is not the Jews as a people, or Titus, or 
Caligula, or the Pope, or some representative 
of Satan yet to come, but Satan himself, whom 
"Christ will bring to naught by the manifesta- 
tion of His presence." We do not see Satan 
now as he is, but he shall yet be revealed in all 
the repulsiveness of his real character. And 
when we see him, we shall be astonished and 
dismayed, and turn from him with inexpressible 
abhorrence. We shall be ashamed that ever we 
rendered him any service. But when we see the 
Lord Jesus in the glory of His Father, we shall 
be ashamed that we have not served Him with 
all our heart. It is often said that without 
holiness no man shall see God, as if holiness were 
essential to the sight. The reverse is true, — 
the sight, or the revelation of God, being essen- 
tial to our holiness. It is morally impossible 
to see God without becoming holy. "No man 
cometh unto Me except the Father draw him." 
"I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." 



114 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

This implies that the divine manifestation is 
first in order. Saul of Tarsus, without holi- 
ness, yet favored with a manifestation of Jesus, 
became holy and the Savior's most valiant 
champion, as he, above all others, had received 
the clearest vision. "No man hath (clearly) 
seen God at any time." But we shall see Him ; 
we shall all see Him; we shall see him with a 
clearness of which the vision of Paul was only 
the hint and harbinger; we shall see Him as He 
is, and the sight will be so transforming that 
we shall be "changed into the same image." 
We shall be like Him. 

In Romans (8) the apostle Paul, personi- 
fying creation, represents it as unwillingly sub- 
mitting to the curse with which it was smitten 
for man's sake and impatiently waiting for the 
revealing of the sons of God, so mysteriously 
are its destinies linked with man's destiny. 
"The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in 
pain with us . . . who groan within ourselves, 
waiting for our adoption." There is not a 
beast in the field or forest, not a bird in the air 
above us, not a fish in the sea beneath us, not 
a feature or particle or element in nature that 
has not been affected by the transactions con- 
nected with Eden. But "creation was sub- 
jected to vanity in the hope that creation it- 
self also shall be delivered from the bondage 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 115 

of corruption into the liberty of the glory of 
the children of God." As the whole creation 
was made to suffer on account of man after his 
fall, it shall be restored to its primeval per- 
fection on man's complete restoration to the 
likeness of God. John, on the isle of Patmos, 
was blessed with a vision of the full, perfect, 
and universal deliverance from sin and the 
curse, not only of angels and of men, but of 
material creation itself. "And I saw and I 
heard a voice of many angels round about the 
throne, and the living creatures and the elders, 
and the number of them was ten thousand times 
ten thousand and thousands of thousands, say- 
ing with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that 
hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, 
and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, 
and blessing. And every created thing which 
is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, 
and on the sea, and all things that are in them, 
heard I saying, Unto Him that sitteth on the 
throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and 
the honor, and the glory, and the domin- 
ion, forever and ever." (Revelation 5:11-14.) 
John's vision shall become reality. Creation 
does not groan and travail in vain. There 
shall be new heavens and new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness, — no thunderbolt of 
wrath within the sky; no tornado on the land 
or tempest on the sea ; no fiery volcano or de- 



116 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

structive earthquake; no poisonous reptile or 
ravenous beast of prey ; no seed of thorn or 
thistle in the ground; no wevil in the kernel, 
or rust on the stock, or mildew in the bin; no 
pest to annoy, or pain to bear, or death to 
fear. The fair morning of the sinless universe 
shall be surpassed by the unclouded splendor 
of the culminating day. The worship and serv- 
ice of God shall employ every creature and pre- 
vail everywhere throughout the universe. Then 
there will be no devil ; there will be no hell ; 
there will be no discordant note in the universal 
anthem of praise ascending to God and the 
Lamb. I am glad that the apostle is so par- 
ticular in mentioning every conceivable place, 
and in embracing and emphasizing by repeti- 
tion, every inhabitant thereof, for it must fol- 
low that there is no location of despair and 
no despair to locate. i 

To an unbiased mind, unbiased by creeds and 
the teachings received from childhood, the 
Bible, though often colored by the bias of 
translators, abounds in confirmation of the 
views here presented. I stand by the old Book, 
correctly translated and rightly interpreted, 
from the first word of Genesis to the final Amen 
of the Apocalypse. Read without prejudice, 
it relieves the perplexity which is so often and 
deeply felt concerning the inequalites of life,' 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 117 

and justifies, without mystery, God's moral 
government of the world. 

Those who believe that "everlasting" means 
without end when applied to future punishment, 
should be consistent enough to concede that it 
means as much when applied to the gospel. 
The everlasting gospel implies everlasting hope. 
The gospel and the punishment will last while 
need requires. All will hold, however, that 
"He who knows his Master's will and does it 
not, shall be beaten with many stripes." 

It may be well to add a special word in rela- 
tion to the final surrender of Satan to God. 
If God redeemed the fallen angels, as we be- 
lieve, Satan is included, for he is one of them. 
There is nothing absurd in the thought that 
sometime Satan will surrender to Him whose 
authority is absolute and to whose supremacy 
he is compelled ever to yield. Even Milton, 
representing Satan in hell in the midst , of his 
standard bearer and lords in chief, pictures him 
with deep scars upon his face, care upon his 
faded cheek, and signs of remorse in his cruel 
eye. 

"He above the rest 
In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 
Stood like a tower. His form had not yet lost 
All her original brightness ; nor appeared 
Less than archangel ruined^ and the excess 



118 THE MINISTRY OF EVIL 

Of glory obscured; . . . but his face 
Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care 
Sat on his faded cheek ; . . . cruel his eye, but cast 
Signs of remorse." 

That is poetry, but it is the expression of 
one who entertained no thought of Satan's sal- 
vation. It is something, however, that Milton 
pictures him as showing signs of remorse. The 
apostle James says : "The devils believe and 
shudder." If that be true of them now, the 
time may come when they shall believe and sur- 
render. 

That Satan will sometime cease his active op- 
position to God, either voluntarily or involun- 
tarily, no one can doubt. He has no posses- 
sions, no kingdom, and no authority. His 
record of failure must be disappointing to him- 
self. As one has said: "He works now, not 
with the vigorous inspiration of hope, but with 
the frantic energies of despair." He led the 
angels in their revolt, not to victory but to 
defeat. He tempted man to his fall, but God 
interposed and made that fall a blessing. He 
tempted Christ in the wilderness, but Christ 
proved Himself the victorious Captain of all 
the warrior host of God. He sorely afflicted 
and expected to overcome Job, but Job over- 
came him. He thought he was doing a fine 
thing when he got Joseph sold into Egypt and 
the three Hebrew children cast into the fiery 



REPLIES TO CRITICS 119 

furnace and Daniel into' the den of lions and 
John Bunyan into Bedford jail, but soon he 
saw his purpose foiled, and he has been sorry 
ever since if at the present time he is capable 
of repentance or regret. It may be that since 
his banishment from heaven his opportunities 
are suspended for a season, for while he is very 
active here, he is said to be reserved in chains 
under darkness until a day of which God knows 
everything, but of which we know nothing. It 
may be that during the present dispensation 
he is so bound in darkness and given to evil and 
separated from God that he is incapable of re- 
pentance, but sometime he will humbly bow and 
confess to God "in the name of Jesus the 
Christ" and "to the glory of God the Father." 
My conception may be wrong, but it seems to 
me that God's highest glory demands it. 

Does evil ever win the victory? Does it not 
always, in the end, go down in defeat? When 
Zophar said to Job that "the triumphing of 
the wicked is short," he told the truth, although 
he made a mistake in classing Job with the 
wicked. A short triumphing always spells de- 
feat. When God shall be "All in All" the con- 
summation will be realized. But forever the 
conditions of salvation will be the same and un- 
alterable. Jesus, now and evermore, is the 
door of the sinner's hope and destiny. 



A STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 



A STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

A preacher had given his people a sermon 
on heaven. Mrs. M., a member of his flock, 
returned to her home quite unprofited, saying 
that she did not go to church to hear specu- 
lations upon what no one knows anything about. 
She believed in heaven as a blessed fact and 
was content to leave her future life with Him 
who is the Lord of her present life. There are 
many Mrs. M.'s in the world. 

Another preacher discoursed on the activities 
of heaven. A worn, weary, overworked woman 
listened and derived no comfort. She returned 
to her home to pursue her incessant toil, say- 
ing that she wanted a future life in which she 
could sit down and take a good, long, undis- 
turbed rest. There are many such who, having 
never missed a stroke in the world's strong cur- 
rent that has set against them, hope to end 
life's tiresome voyage in a haven of complete 
repose. 

There are others who think of the future life 
as bringing reward for unappreciated and un- 
compensated service, or reunion with loved ones 
beyond the possibility of separation, or that 

clear intellectual vision which solves all prob- 
123 



IM STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

lems and providences and explains all mysteries. 
With many who have deeply drunk the cup of 
sorrow, the only thought of the future life is 
that it will be happy, filled with beauty and 
brightness and fragrance and melody and joy, 
— no tears, no sorrows there. There are some 
who dismiss the subject of the future life by 
saying that it will be enough for them to be 
with Christ, or that they will be satisfied when 
they wake in His likeness. 

Dr. Dick has gone so far as to say that he 
believes that hereafter we shall gO' from planet 
to planet as we now go from house to house. 
To those here who are not content to stay long 
in any one place, who are filled with what is 
called the "wanderlust," a life "on the wing" 
would be all that their heart could crave. Such 
are the varied notions concerning the future 
life ; and such, also, is the indifference regard- 
ing a rational view of the great hereafter. 

No philosophy of the future life has ever 
been written and possibly one never can be writ- 
ten. A study of it, however, may be made in- 
teresting and even profitable, for there is 
scarcely any other subject concerning which so' 
many absurd and stupid notions prevail. 

The fact of the future life may be assumed. 
It is the universal hope and expectation of 
humanity, and, as one has said, a universal hu- 
man quality is the assurance of a universal 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 125 

reality. Moreover, man's immortality is 
brought to light in the Scriptures. 

One other fact may be equally assumed, — 
namely, the possibility of man's constant im- 
provement and development. Created with 
mental and moral powers in the image of God, 
surrounded with opportunities for calling these 
powers into exercise, and endowed with immor- 
tality, man is stamped with the law of unlimited 
progress. When we lose sight of the fact that 
this world is an omnipotently governed and 
omnisciently taught school, the grand purpose 
of which is human development, that moment 
life is a maze, man is a mystery, evil is a rid- 
dle, God's government an enigma, and the uni- 
verse itself one vast, unsolvable problem; but 
with this fact in view, progress becomes a large 
word, teeming with importance and written in 
letters so plain that even he who runs may 
spell them out. 

The conditions of our future life and the 
methods of our progress there cannot be as- 
sumed, and therefore they challenge our care- 
ful study. 

We understand quite clearly the means of 
our development here, but we have very vague 
notions of the conditions and methods of our 
progress hereafter. We believe that God never 
changes the principles of His administration, 
yet we fail to apply those principles, as we have 



126 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

learned them, to the life that is to come. We 
know that reasoning from what has been to 
what will be is a correct method of inference, 
especially in relation to God, yet we limit the 
application of our conclusions to this present 
state. If our development is God's supreme 
thought concerning us in this world, it must be 
supposed that our progress will ever be in- 
cluded in His plans and that the conditions of 
our future advancement will bear some resem- 
blance to those which now obtain. 

Upon resemblances, not upon possibilities, 
are founded opinions, theories, philosophies, 
which command our faith. Even if some de- 
gree of speculation attaches to them, they may 
still hold the mind in persuasion of their truth. 
When, however, there is added to resemblances 
the basis of Scripture in its most rational in- 
terpretation, and the theory itself reflects 
beauty upon our life, upon the universe signifi- 
cance, and upon God honor, all of which is 
true in relation to our present study, it bears 
the seal of divine sanction and the conviction 
of its value is irresistible. 

In Genesis 2:7 we read: "And the Lord 
God formed man of the dust of the ground and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; 
and man became a living soul." This verse is 
quoted as it stands, both in the Authorized and 
Revised Versions, and there is no intimation 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 127 

that it reads differently in any other transla- 
tion. The word translated "life," however, 
should be rendered "lives," for that is its literal 
meaning and is admitted to be so by all biblical 
scholars, but the translators, believing in life 
immortal for the inbreathed part of man and 
not knowing what to do with "lives," have pur- 
posely mistranslated the word, making it ex- 
press a single life when it should express plural- 
ity. 

God breathed into the nostrils of the body 
which He had formed from the dust of the 
ground the breath of lives; and man, combin- 
ing the material and the spiritual, man as a 
whole, body and mind, became one living soul. 
What does this mean? It must have a mean- 
ing and a meaning which we ought to know. 

Its meaning must be, not abundance of life 
(a construction sometimes given to the Hebrew 
plural), in which case it would be as true of 
the prolific lower animals as of man, but a 
living soul, presenting a succession of unlike 
bodies ; a single life continued through many 
separate and consecutive lives ; a man, or living 
soul, finding his discipline and development and 
preserving his immortality through an indefi- 
nite succession of different yet related bodies, 
each new body being a resurrection of the pre- 
ceding body. It is the continuity of complex 
man through a succession of different human 



1^8 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

organisms, each organism being a more refined 
and delicate vehicle than its predecessor, and 
the period of the continuance of each, prob- 
ably ever lengthening, being properly termed 
a life. 

Why do I say bodies? Because the Bible 
teaches bodily resurrection, and because a body 
and the inbreathed spirit are equally essential 
in constituting the "living soul." Neither the 
body nor the spirit operates apart from the 
other. The two elements in union constitute 
the man. ' \ 

Why do I say human bodies? Because we 
must always belong to the human race, however 
diverse our bodily forms may be. 

Why do I say unlimited succession of bodies ? 
Because God's word, "breath of lives," is in- 
definite as to number. 

Why do I say each body more refined and 
delicate than its predecessor .^^ Because in each 
succeeding life the man, or living soul, has a 
higher, sublimer, and more spiritual purpose 
to fulfill than was possible under the conditions 
of the former life. 

To illustrate this definition of man in his in- 
finite progress and to show that my interpreta- 
tion of the word "lives" is not absurd but 
highly probable, attention is called to some of 
the creatures which are much lower than our- 
selves in the scale of being. 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 129 

We all know that a caterpillar, probably a 
resurrection of the moth, becomes in its resur- 
rection a butterfly, and that the life principle 
in one is the permanent living element in all. 
One living being continues in unlike bodies 
through distinct lives, in separate realms. It 
is a strange yet instructive transformation. 
The clumsy and repulsive worm, crawling on the 
earth and feeding from the dust, at length 
weaves its own shroud, from which it soon 
emerges winged and beautiful, flying in the air 
and nourished by the nectar of leaf and bud and 
flower. Will it have yet other and higher 
forms of existence in still loftier realms.? We 
do not know, but our ignorance is no proof 
that it will not. 

There is a sluggish grub that rambles among 
the water plants and shows a fondness for the 
deep and shaded bottom of the pool. The 
time comes, however, when turning away from 
its companions and familiar haunts, it finds the 
stalk of some reed or rush which it slowly 
climbs to sunlight and air; there, with a shud- 
der, it drops its body back to its former home 
and, as the dragon fly, spreads its four gauzy 
wings and soars away, the creature of a new 
and higher realm. The one living soul passes 
by resurrection from a lower form of life to 
another that is higher, and it can no more re- 
turn to its former world than it can to its 



130 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

former mode of being. Its companions see the 
old body, having legs with which it crawled, 
and perhaps bury it from their sight, but they 
do not see the new or resurrected body having 
wings with which to fly. 

In the progressive life of what we come to 
know as the frog, by evolution rather than by 
resurrection we find three clearly distinct lives 
and two widely separated worlds. In the first 
life of the frog it appears as a small dark 
speck in a mass of white jelly that floats upon 
the surface of the pond. Gradually that 
speck, or egg, absorbs into its enlarging pulpy 
form the glutinous bed in which it rests. When 
this process is completed the spawn life of the 
frog ends and its polliwog existence begins. 
Now it breathes through gills, like a fish, and 
has a tail by which it sculls its way about the 
pond in search of food. Its only element or 
world is water. At length, however, the gills 
give place to lungs, the tail is absorbed in legs 
and its polliwog stage has come to an end. It 
now enjoys a still larger life, where it propels 
itself in the water by means of its legs or with 
them climbs the banks, where it hops in the 
grass, or sits upon a log, basking in the rays 
of the summer sun. It has become an inhabit- 
ant by turns of two worlds, the world of water 
and the world of air and dry land. 

Thus we see even in these lowest creatures a 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 131 

single life not only continued, but developed, 
through different lives in ascending forms, no 
life, in any one of them, having any resemblance 
to the other life or lives. We see, also, that 
in every case the body, or form of existence, is 
perfectly adapted to its conditions, and that 
the conditions always serve the purpose of 
higher progress. i 

While not germane to my central thought, 
yet I am constrained to ask, have these lowly 
creatures reached their limit, or will they ascend 
still higher, through additional transitions? A 
categorical answer cannot be given to this ques- 
tion. But the God who made man, made them, 
and He made them for man, whose nature re- 
quires them for observation, study, and im- 
provement. Will man's nature so change that 
he will not need, hereafter, diverse forms of life 
below him as well as varied orders of life above 
him, all adapted to his wants and to their con- 
ditions ? They can be advanced to other worlds 
and in other worlds, as they have been advanced 
from one element to another in this world. 
There should be no call, it seems, for new and 
original creations to meet the wants of man's 
nature, when God has shown us that even here 
a caterpillar may become a butterfly. It may 
be that God will promote from lower to higher 
stages the creatures which we have found help- 
ful to our progress in this world, that in our 



132 STUDY OF THE rUTURE LIFE 

advance from life to life in worlds to come we 
may have their presence and influence forever. 

Ever since Adam and Eve, every living soul 
of our race has had one life, an embryo exist- 
ence, prior to this present life. The living 
soul of our former life is the living soul of the 
present life and will be of all our future lives. 
This life, while it is a continuation of our 
former life, is yet distinct and separate from 
it, and our next life will be a continuation of 
this and of our former life and still be distinct 
and separate from either. 

Our transit from our former life was our 
birth, or resurrection, into this larger and bet- 
ter life ; and our departure from this life will 
be our birth, or resurrection, into another life 
of ampler opportunities and transcending pos- 
sibilities. Thenceforth, ascending from life to 
life, each painless birth or resurrection, will be 
a grand promotion, while the body will undergo 
such changes as shall adapt it always to its new 
conditions. 

Our first life of a few months' duration an- 
swered its purpose ; this life of a few years' 
duration accomplishes its higher object; the 
next life will achieve its still sublimer end; so 
will the next and the next and the following, 
in unlimited succession. 

It was necessary that our former life should 
end in order to secure the advantages of this 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 133 

present larger life; this, toe, must end as an 
essential condition of the higher thought and 
loftier action of the life to come; that, also, 
must end for the same purpose, and so the liv- 
ing soul, to realize infinite progress, must move 
out and on and up, in successive human embodi- 
ments, by new births or resurrections forever. 

This does not imply, however, that the tears 
of separation and the pangs of dissolution are 
to be feared and felt hereafter. The partial- 
ities of the present and the pains which they 
occasion, being based upon physical functions 
and relations, are peculiar to this procreative 
state. Where they neither marry nor are 
given in marriage, but all are as the angels of 
God, the bonds of our union will not depend 
upon earthly kinships or outward resemblances. 

In its essentials only, will the living soul pre- 
serve permanence of identity or furnish the 
basis of enduring fellowship. 

In our former embryo life we had all the 
faculties which we have now, or ever shall have, 
but how limited was their action and how un- 
conscious we were of their possession. In our 
present life we have come into consciousness of 
many powers and have large opportunity for 
their exercise ; yet such are the conditions in 
this world, the scope of their action and develop- 
ment is still limited. They reach out and find 
barriers which they cannot penetrate and 



134 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

boundaries which they cannot pass. Like a 
bird encaged, we beat in vain the bars that en- 
close us. With Tennyson we cry betimes: — 

"But what am I? 
An infant crying in the night; 
An infant crying for the light; 
And with no language but a cry." 

Our next life will extend, but by no means 
complete, the scope of the faculties we now use, 
and will awaken into consciousness faculties of 
which we now know nothing. While each suc- 
cessive life will enlarge the living soul's oppor- 
tunities, it will also limit them according to the 
materiality or permissive character of our 
bodies. We shall remain finite creatures for- 
ever. 

We have now come in our study, not through 
speculation, but by reason, resemblance, and 
revelation, to a mount of vision which com- 
mands a broad and bright horizon whose vaulted 
arch is studded with stars that flash a new and 
beautiful light. Questions that have puzzled 
scholars here find solution. Scriptures that 
have been misunderstood or regarded as obscure 
are now luminous. What are some of the things 
which we learn .^^ 

We learn that the living soul and our in- 
breathed spirit are not synonymous. Our 
translators of the Bible have erred in using 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 135 

the words "soul" and "spirit" interchangeably. 
The former is the more comprehensive term 
for it includes the spirit and its essential body 
— the body which God is pleased to give in the 
successive stages of our development. 

We learn that we shall enter into another life, 
as we entered into this life, by birth. I be- 
lieve that Christ's words to Nicodemus, "Ye 
must be born again," express this great truth 
and do not refer to a change of heart or re- 
generation, as popularly understood. I believe 
that they declare, not a conditional moral re- 
quirement, but an unconditional necessity; and 
that they were as applicable to Christ Himself 
as they were to Nicodemus or as they are to 
us ; for even He, the Son of God, in order to 
come into this world as a revelation of the 
Father, had to be born into it as we are born 
into it, and when He would return to the right 
hand of God, He had to die and rise — in other 
words, be born again — just as we must die and 
rise, or be born again, in order to go to the 
world in every way prepared for us and to the 
life for which we have fitted ourselves. 

This application of Christ's words, contro- 
verting the teaching of the whole Christian 
world, should be, perhaps, more than merely 
stated. Note, therefore, that while John sev- 
eral times speaks of men as being spiritually be- 
gotten of God, he never refers to them as being 



136 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

begotten again, or anew, of God. The birth 
of which John speaks stands in contrast with 
nothing. He uses the term very much as Paul 
uses it when in relation to the conversion of 
Onesimus, he says, "Whom I have begotten in 
my bonds" ; or, as he again uses it when, writing 
to the Corinthians, he says, "For though you 
should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet 
not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have 
begotten you through the Gospel" ; or as Peter 
uses it when he speaks of God "who begat us 
again unto a living hope by the resurrection of 
Jesus Christ from the dead." 

The term "birth" or "begotten" in relation 
to the work of spiritual regeneration is used in 
the Scripture in a purely symbolic sense ; but 
the birth of which Christ speaks to Nicodemus 
is not symbolic but actual; it is as real and 
literal as our birth into this life, over against 
which it stands, and Nicodemus so understood 
it, as is evident from his question, "How can a 
man be bom when he is old? Can he enter a 
second time into his mother's womb and be 
born?" If Nicodemus received a false impres- 
sion in this respect, it is reasonable to suppose 
that Christ would have corrected it ; on the con- 
trary, he confirmed it by proceeding at once to 
indicate the nature of the birth declared, viz., 
that it was by spiritual and not by physical 
agencies. The two births are equally real and 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 137 

stand in contrast to each other, each one the 
door of entrance to a life of the ever living soul. 

The difficulty of Nicodemus had respect to 
the feebly hoped-for resurrection and future 
life. Job wrestled with the same problem when 
he asked, "If a man die, shall he live again?" 
The only answer which he could give was, "All 
the days of my warfare will I wait till my release 
comes." That would settle the question, though 
he yearned for a present and authoritative an- 
swer. And what was true of Job in this re- 
spect was equally true of the people in general. 
Christ, who knew what was in man, in every man, 
knew the difficulty of Nicodemus and of his 
class, and met it with the most beautiful, com- 
prehensive, and illumining term ever applied to 
the great truths of the hereafter, — a term that 
explains death misnamed and dreaded, reveals 
the resurrection as positive and certain, and 
declares the most welcome fact in all the realm 
of truth — another life in another world. In- 
deed, in the words, "Ye must be born again," 
Jesus took Nicodemus to the gate of the tomb 
and wrote thereon what he and all the world 
might read: "The door of our birth into a 
brighter and larger life." Bom into our pres- 
ent life, we must be born again to enter our next 
life. This application of Christ's words is not 
strained, but simple, natural, and logical. 

We learn that there is no call for the gener- 



138 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

ally supposed intermediate state; that there is 
no unconscious sleep, no purgatory, no jail 
where we await a formal trial, and no' disem- 
bodied spirits looking for their laid-ofF caskets 
to be resurrected and returned. Our theolo- 
gians talk of disembodied spirits, but there is no 
evidence of their existence. Professor E. A. 
Shafer of Edinburg University says: "We 
cannot conceive of life, in the scientific sense, as 
existing apart from matter." 

We learn that the judgment which approval 
or condemnation awaits is a process — a present 
and continuous judgment; that all days are 
judgment days. True, we read, "After death 
the judgment"; but that judgment is not after 
the death of the whole human race ; it follows the 
death of each individual and probably consists 
of our just and proper entrance into that par- 
ticular world that can serve us best. But is not 
the last parable in Matthew (chapter ^5) a 
picture of a single, final, general judgment.-^ 
Being a parable, it is not to be literally inter- 
preted. It may be a symbolic representation 
of the judgment that is searching, constant, and 
universal. It doubtless teaches the separation 
of the righteous and the wicked. But are not 
these classes separated now by virtue of their 
opposite characters.? Will the righteous ever 
be more on Christ's right hand or the wicked be 
more on His left hand than they are at present .^^ 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 139 

It does not require the pronouncement of a judge 
to separate from each other the righteous and 
the unrighteous. The antipodal in character 
go their separate ways. 

We learn what Paul means when he says: 
"This mortal must put on immortality." Our 
body is not immortal, but it puts on immortal- 
ity while it still remains mortal. How can this 
be done.? The process can be explained on 
our theory of a succession of births and an 
equal succession of lives. How does the wheat 
put on immortality? By periodic or frequent 
resurrections, exchanging old bodies for new 
ones. "That which is sown is not the body 
that shall be." 

When a man, or the living soul, quits his 
present visible body, he quits it forever. He 
takes his new body from his dying body, for 
where there is no life there can be no' resur- 
rection. He takes his resurrection body in the 
moment of what we call dissolution here, for 
Death is birth and birth is resurrection. My 
present body is a resurrection out of the body 
or external wrapping which, no longer needed, 
was left behind when I was born into this pres- 
ent life ; and so another body shall be a part 
of me in my next succeeding life, where this 
body would be as unsuitable as was the body 
of my embryo life for this present stage of my 
being. Thus, through an indefinite number of 



140 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

new births, or resurrections, or successive lives, 
I shall put on the immortality, which the mor- 
tal part of the living soul requires. 

This is the only conceivable way in which 
this mortal can put on immortality, for the 
resurrection of that which is mortal and ma- 
terial must still be mortal and material or it 
could not be a resurrection ; and being so, it 
will become old, like the former body, and like 
it, also, will demand the youth of a new birth. 
How many resurrections of mortality immor- 
tality may require no one can tell. The body 
will become less gross with each renewal, and 
therefore the resurrections will become less fre- 
quent ; but it is called "a spiritual body" not 
so much on account of its spirituality as be- 
cause it is the result of spiritual, instead of 
physical, agencies. 

It is possible that the "aura," which, by 
means of the Roentgen rays, scientists tell us 
they see departing from the body at the in- 
stant of death, is itself the faintly outlined 
expression of the living soul in the life that fol- 
lows this terrestrial life. 

It will be noted that our view, as here pre- 
sented, is entirely free from such difficulties as 
are involved in the absurd theory that the 
resurrection is the reassembling, reclothing and 
revivifying of the dry bones and scattered dust 
of the world's graveyards. It will be noted, 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 141 

also, that our view is analogous to what we see 
taking place in some of the lower creatures. 

It is the fact of resurrection, not the man- 
ner of it, or time of it, or number of its occur- 
rences, that the Bible clearly teaches. 

We learn that Christ's second coming is a 
gradual and continuous manifestation and not 
a single, sudden, spectacular, and complete 
event. It began when Mary Magdalene saw 
Him through her tears, — the first to behold 
Him after His resurrection. It continued to 
the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, and 
to the eleven as they sat at meat in Galilee. 
His very parting from His brethren over 
against Bethany was an incident in His second 
coming, and the words then spoken, "Lo, I am 
with you always," have been, are now, and ever 
shall be true in their continuous fulfillment. 
Christ's second coming is a perpetual and an 
increasingly glorious advent. A blind man, 
after an operation to restore lost vision, is 
not permitted a full sunburst. Christ's mani- 
festation to men is according to the power of 
their spiritual appreciation. Special manifes- 
tations there may be, as on the day of Pente- 
cost, to Saul of Tarsus, and in the destruction 
of Jerusalem — the end of the Jewish state. 

His second coming is not like His first — 
with scarred visage, wounded and bruised, and 
having no beauty that men should desire Him 



142 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

— but attractive and winsome ; He is the Rose 
of Sharon, the Lily of the valley, the Fairest 
among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely. 
His second coming, unlike His first, is not in 
weakness, but in power. He comes not as a 
victim, but as the victor ; not to make salvation 
possible, but to make it sure, — to perfect that 
which in His first coming He began. He comes 
to us, and to all who have lived in this and in 
all worlds, as the revelation of the glory of 
the Godhead. He comes as the light that 
illumines every man's path and that shineth 
"more and more unto' the perfect day" ; more 
and more, not only here, but hereafter, as we 
advance 

"From world to luminous world as far 
As the universe spreads its shining wall" ; 

more and more as we ascend in our successive 
lives toward that central, mighty, metropolitan 
orb in which rises "the throne itself of God" ; 
more and more unto "the perfect day" when 
every knee shall bow and every tongue confess 
to Christ, to the glory of God the Father; 
more and more unto that crowning day, when 
all having been assimilated into the divine 
image by the clear vision of the Savior, His 
Kingdom shall be complete and God shall be 
ALL IN ALL. The record of eternity will be 
the progressive and transforming revelation of 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 143 

God the Father through Jesus Christ His Son. 
I have no sympathy with the lines of Bonar: 

"The Church has waited long 
Her absent Lord to see. 
And still in loneliness she waits, 
A friendless stranger she. 
Age after age has gone, 
Sun after sun has set, 
And still in weeds of widowhood, 
She weeps a mourner yet." 

God's children are not orphans. Christ's 
Church is not a widow, but a bride adorned and 
joyful. The Lord is ever present with His 
people. He is touched with the feeling of their 
infirmities. He is in the midst of them who 
assemble in His name. The physical atmos- 
phere does not more surely surround men than 
His arms enfold them. He is nearer to them 
than their breath in their body, for in Him they 
live and move and have their being. While 
vividly realizing His presence hovering over 
them and soothing them more than the caresses 
of a tender mother's love, there is ever a more- 
ness in His coming; He may come more 
graciously, more gloriously, more triumphantly, 
and so men should not cease to pray, — "Even 
so, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen." 

We see much more from our mount of vision ; 
more than we have time and space to name. 



144 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

We see how the future may be a continuation 
of the present and not altogether out of har- 
mony with it; how our service of God may be 
perpetuated in the service of His creatures — 
the only way in which we can serve Him; how 
the present laws of moral discipline and devel- 
opment may always obtain; how God may be 
our Father and Christ our Savior no less hence- 
forth than now ; how hope and love and oppor- 
tunity may survive successive transitions ; how 
the imperfectly begun web of our existence may 
yet be advanced toward completion that for- 
ever recedes ; how the purposes that are broken 
off in this life may be consummated in a later 
life ; how the blighted buds of this dull spring- 
time of our existence may bloom in infinite 
beauty in the golden summers that are yet t& 
be. 

But where are we to pass our numberless and 
constantly expandingi lives? Such lives, in- 
volving the material, require locality, habita- 
tion, distinct yet related, limited yet enlarging 
spheres of action. If we are able to find the 
possible places of habitation, their very exist- 
ence tends to confirm the truth of our theory ; 
indeed, the evidence altogether would seem 
sufficient to establish the theory as a doctrine. 
It is clear that we are passing the present life 
of our infinite series on one of the smaller 
planets of one of the minor solar systems — a 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 145 

very appropriate starting point of a stupen- 
dous journey. 

At the close of His last supper with His 
disciples, Jesus said to them in substance: Do 
not be anxious about the future; you believe in 
God fully, trust just as implicitly in Me. In 
my Father's house, that is, in the illimitable 
space which He occupies, are many mansions, 
numberless abiding places ; if it were not so, 
I would have told you, such is its importance. 
I go, and you are grieved in view of My de- 
parture, but I go to prepare a place — not a 
permanent abode, not a final home, but a place 
— for you. The many mansions are for your 
many lives, which they imply. No matter 
which mansion I prepare for you first, or what 
the conditions of your discipline and develop- 
ment there may be, you can leave that to me, 
for I shall be there; where I am, you shall be 
also. 

Surely no one would wish to take from, or 
add to, or misrepresent the gracious words of 
Jesus, as full of comfort as they are of in- 
struction, and spoken to each one of us as 
really as to those entranced disciples who sat 
at His feet. 

We now go out and look up to the starlit 
sky. What a scene of grandeur and magnifi- 
cence invites our astonished gaze ! And yet 
we see only the fringe of a universe that 



146 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

stretches in every direction beyond the reach 
of human thought. Those brilliant orbs, 
worlds upon worlds, systems and constellations 
and clusters, that bejewel the infinite space, 
have now assumed a new and wondrous mean- 
ing. While they declare the glory of God and 
show His marvelous handiwork, while they are 
great lights hung out by the Almighty hand to 
illumine the realms of unlimited space, while 
they stir our amazement over the marvel and 
magnitude and miracle of creation, they yet 
speak a purpose more practical and precious ; 
they are our celestial possessions, they are co- 
relative to the lives which we are destined to 
live, they are mansions in our Father's house — 
abiding places for us, representing stages of 
progress in our march of immortality, 

I am overcome with delight. My vision is 
as beautiful as an angel's dream. The maze 
and the haze that have obscured my view of 
the future are largely cleared away. Now I 
see why the mansions are many, why they vary 
in magnitude and splendor, why one star dif- 
fers from another star in glory. Each one 
must answer to a distinct type of life, having 
its own definite adaptations and lofty purposes. 
The home must correspond to the life that 
shall there be lived. My line of three known 
lives is extended to many, as many as their pos- 
sible habitations. 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 147 

True, the whole created universe, having had 
a beginning, must have an end. When the 
planet on which we now live shall have served 
its high purpose, its very elements shall dis- 
solve. Yonder sun shall yet exhaust its light 
and heat and pass away. There is not a star 
in the firmament that shall not become dim and 
dark. The far off Milky Way, breaking up 
into different parts, proclaims that it is not 
eternal. "The wreck of matter and the crash 
of worlds" is not mere poetry. Still we never 
shall be left mansionless. Our God has at His 
command unlimited creative power, and scien- 
tists tell us that new planets are constantly 
being born and that in the universe there are 
planets in all stages of development. When a 
world shall have fulfilled its sublime mission, it 
shall pass away and another world, more glori- 
ous and with loftier purpose, shall appear; and 
so Christ may say to us in our next life and 
in each of our succeeding lives, what He says' 
to us in this life, "I go to prepare a place for 
you." Thus shall we have a "progressive 
revelation of God, given to us, as it were, in a 
series of concentric circles rising one above 
another toward their Source." Thus, also, 
we shall continue to see in God's visible crea- 
tions the invisible things of God, even His 
eternal power and divinity. 

I see, also, how progress is ever orderly, 



148 STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

under law, and by effort and discipline. I see, 
moreover, how not only Judas, but every man 
may go to "his own place," and how the con- 
sequences of good or evil conduct here may 
follow into the hereafter forever without there 
being a hopeless soul in all the universe of God. 

Oh, the grandeur and blessedness of the 
Father's thought and plan and will concerning 
me, — for my infinite series of progressive lives 
an infinite succession of prepared worlds. 

Eloquence may garland many themes, but 
not this one ; it becomes mute in the soul-absorb- 
ing view of the ineffable splendors and floods 
of melody and divine unfoldings that shall 
glorify our ever brightening immortality. 

Fancy may take its flight far beyond the 
ken of eye or telescope in the limitless domin- 
ions of God, but at last it must fold its wings 
in weariness and sink exhausted amidst the 
glories of immensity, crying: ^'This is hut 
the vestibule of His temple.^* 

My Father's house, the universe, 
Has mansions many — worlds of light 
Full furnished for my separate lives 
That rise in series infinite. 

This mansion is a place prepared 
Through countless years and ages vast; 
Rocks, stars, and sunless depths reveal 
God's thought of man through aeons past. 



STUDY OF THE FUTURE LIFE 149 

And God still works^, preparing homes 
With lavish hand and purpose high. 
In what bright orb shall I next dwell; 
Which first call "home" in yonder sky? 

Ah, what my term of schooling there? 
And whither then shall I remove? 
Still brighter spheres, still larger lives, 
The progress of my soul shall prove. 

And when I've traversed, one by one. 
And dwelt in all the worlds I see. 
Will then my progress have an end? 
'Tis hut begun: ETERNITY. 



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